Indian Holocaust My Father`s Life and Time, Chapter Nine Hundred Twenty
Palash Biswas
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Markets signalling continuation of uptrend in coming weeks thanks to intensified reform drive merciless. The growth story based on exclusion and excommunication, ethnic cleansing gets momentum. With economy showing signs of revival in the second quarter of this fiscal, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia today said that the deceleration in GDP growth has bottomed out.Not public welfare, creditworthiness is the supreme priority of the corporate government of India!: Beginning the disinvestment process this year, the government is likely to sell stake in Hindustan Copper BSE 5.83 % through auction route on November 21. On September 14, the government had approved disinvestment of 9.59 percent equity of the company through an offer for sale of shares through stock exchanges.Post disinvestment, the government's shareholding would come down to 90 per cent in the company, whose paid up capital was Rs 462.61 crore as on March, 2012. Finance minister P Chidambaram has flashed the "danger ahead" sign before his ministerial colleagues, asking them to immediately take belt tightening measures to stave off a fiscal crisis which could turn India into junk grade on creditworthiness.On the other hand, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's message to chiefs of cash-rich state enterprises was loud and clear; don't sit on huge piles of cash. Invest, or pay dividends.
keeping in mind the global scenario emerging out od US presidential elections, genocide culture in India would further be enhanced as the zionist global order is all set to dump the black untouchable president having used him to showcase a liberal America to get over the economic crisis. I have been writing and saying again and again that the crisis rooted in the war economy. America had to get out of Irag, the suicide zone, hence corporate America opted for Obama. As the agenda is accomplished, he has to be thrown out. Meanwhile, the global order is trnsformed into a full fledged zionist hindu combine as the future of america lies within Indian free market as US may not get the freedom to extract and exploit chinese economy despite the great wall is opened up. Wall Street, with its deep pool of billionaires and millionaires, is a key pit stop in the race for the White House. In 2008, it was leaning left.The then Senator Barack Obama had successfully charmed the sharp-suited throngs of lower Manhattan into backing him, lock, stock and chequebook.Goldman Sachs, no less, was his second-biggest contributor, based on donations from the firm's political action committee and those individual donors who listed the investment bank as their employer. But now the pendulum has swung the other way.Here you are! It is alarming bell for Indian people and you may get the echoes from policy statements of the corporate government in India led by US comradors.
President Barack Obama is heading toward Election Day with an apparent lead over Republican Mitt Romney among early voters in key states that could decide the election.But Obama's advantage isn't as big as the one he had over John McCain four years ago, and that gives Romney's campaign hope that the former Massachusetts governor can erase the gap in Tuesday's election.About 25 million people already have voted in 34 states and the District of Columbia. No votes will be counted until Election Day but several battleground states are releasing the party affiliation of people who have voted early.So far, Democratic voters outnumber Republicans in Florida, Iowa, Nevada, North Carolina and Ohio. Republicans have the edge in Colorado.
Like the rest of the country, Wall Street will likely be on edge next week until it learns the outcome of Tuesday's presidential election, one of the most closely fought contests in years."Come next week, it's going to be all elections, all the time," said Erik Davidson, deputy chief investment officer of Wells Fargo Private Bank in San Francisco. Most national polls show President Obama and Governor Romney in a dead heat. The latest average of national presidential-election polls from RealClearPolitics.com on Friday showed Obama was expected to receive 47.5% of votes, and Romney to win 47.2% of votes. In another average of polls from the same site, Obama was ahead in eight of 11 so-called swing states, which are expected to decide the outcome of the election. If the president were to maintain those leads and win those states, he would end up with 290 electoral votes, or 20 more than he needs for re-election.In the Senate, elections for 33 seats are being held, with some surveys projecting Democrats will retain control. Control of the House of Representatives will likely remain in the hands of Republicans.
It should be kept in mind as a senior Iranian legislator underlined that the victory of Barack Obama or Mitt Romney in the US presidential elections makes no difference to Tehran since both US Republican and Democrat parties are at the service of the Zionist lobby and Israel.
President Barack Obama dodged a serious last-minute blow to his re-election hopes with the release of data showing the sluggish US economy created more jobs than expected last month. (AP photo)
Source: Center for Responsive Politics; The Independent; The New York Times
President Barack Obama dodged a serious last-minute blow to his re-election hopes with the release of data showing the sluggish US economy created more jobs than expected last month. (AP photo)Source: Center for Responsive Politics; The Independent; The New York Times
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Though individual contributions are capped at $2,500 per candidate, deep-pocketed donors have, under a 2010 US Supreme Court ruling, been funneling millions to outside groups allied with their choice.
The ruling legalised unlimited corporate funds to independent 'political action committees'. Enter Super PACs...
Mind you, Finance Minister P Chidambaram has urged his cabinet colleagues to "get together" in order to overcome policy paralysis, pointing out that 700 projects with investments of Rs 7,500 crore are stuck due to delays caused by the absence of regulatory approvals. The finance minister, who was making a presentation to his cabinet colleagues, said the delays were on account of the absence of environmental and other regulatory approvals as well as problems stemming from land acquisition, difficulty in arranging financing and and arranging fuel supply.The Economic Times reports. It means, natural resources has to be extracted in corporate and MNC interest violating fifth and sixth schedules, civic and human rights, environment and ecology.The agenda has to be followed very hard as the world gets over the post American hype. US supremacy has to be maintained in every condition.The set back has been reflected by Obama regime. Once the regime is over, we would see a turnaround, an all out aggressive America. As in India, Arab spring is imported with civil society package, Hindu nationalism ia all set to get the helms and we have to see a prime minster li someone like for instance Narendra Modi which suits most US Corporate agenda as well as the interests of US War Economy.In a rare admission by the government, the FM has acknowledged that projects stuck across key sectors as on September 2012 had reached the highest since 2005, when the number of such delayed projects was less than 100. Policy paralysis and bureaucratic delays peaked between September 2011 and June 2012 - a period in which Pranab Mukherjee, now the President of India was the finance minister - when as many 300 projects came to a halt with approvals held up at various government departments.Elaborating on how public and private sector investments have both plummeted, the finance minister cited data collated by the Centre for Monitoring the Indian Economy (CMIE) showing that in the third quarter of 2012 new investment proposals were less than Rs 2000 billion ( Rs 2,00,000 crore), of which government investments were down to less than Rs 500 billion ( Rs 50,000 crore) . The slide after December 2010 when new projects were Rs 4,000 billion ( Rs 4,00,000 crore). CMIE uses a statistical technique known as rolling or moving averages for its calculations.
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Alan Hart (writer) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- en.wikipedia.org/.../Alan_Hart_(wri... - इस पृष्ठ का अनुवाद करें
- Alan Hart is an author, former Middle East Chief Correspondent for Independent ... He has authored the three-part series Zionism: The Real Enemy of the Jews.
Zionism - The Real Enemy of the Jews (by Alan Hart)
- www.zionismbook.com/ - इस पृष्ठ का अनुवाद करें
- And that's why Alan Hart devoted more than five years of his life to researching and writing this book - to empower citizens to play their necessary part in ...
ZIONISM UNMASKED – A fairy tale that's become a ... - Alan Hart
- www.alanhart.net/zionism-unmaske... - इस पृष्ठ का अनुवाद करें
- 11 Feb 2010 – This article was written as one in a series with other authors under the title ZIONISM UNMASKED. I will be tweeting the contributions of others in ...
Anti-Semitism – Zionist myth v truth and reality - Alan Hart
- www.alanhart.net/anti-semitism-–-zi... - इस पृष्ठ का अनुवाद करें
- 15 Mar 2010 – (This is an article I contributed to a series titled Zionism Unmasked.) There are two definitions of anti-Semitism in its Jewish context. One was ...
A Review of Alan Hart's Zionism: The Dead End of the Oppressor
- www.israelshamir.net/.../Petersen--Z... - इस पृष्ठ का अनुवाद करें
- Zionism is the ideology that dispossessed the Palestinians of their traditional territory. It is the ideology that nuclearized the Middle East. It is the ideology whose ...
Zionism: v. 1: The Real Enemy of the Jews: Amazon.co.uk: Alan Hart ...
- www.amazon.co.uk/Zionism.../095... - इस पृष्ठ का अनुवाद करें
- Zionism: v. 1: The Real Enemy of the Jews: Amazon.co.uk: Alan Hart: Books.
Zionism is the real enemy of Jews (Alan Hart) - YouTube
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- www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQYG_vIHEfc21 जुलाई 2010 - 10 मिनट - currentparadigm द्वारा अपलोड किया गया
- Alan Hart: Hard-core Zionists are a tiny minority among all Jews, and yet we are on the brink of a disaster ...
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Alan Hart - Zionism: The Real Enemy of the Jews - YouTube
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- www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4eL6ona1m819 अप्रैल 2011 - 32 मिनट - abumiz द्वारा अपलोड किया गया
- Former BBC and ITN correspondent Alan Hart delivers a powerful speech on why Zionism is not only the ...
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Freiburg - Palästinatage - Alan Hart - Zionism: the real enemy of the ...
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- www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HVMN2k5Irk16 सितं 2011 - 40 मिनट - omarkhayyam9 द्वारा अपलोड किया गया
- Rede Alan Hart, Journalist GB (website: http://www.alanhart.net): "Die Komplizenschaft der ...
- Allan hart on zionism के लिए अधिक वीडियो »
Allan hart on zionism की छवियां
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Alan Hart : Zionism, Jewishness and Israel | My Catbird Seat
- mycatbirdseat.com/.../zionism-jewis... - इस पृष्ठ का अनुवाद करें
- 11 May 2011 – The following is the recording of a panel event that I took part in with Gilad Atzmon, Karl Sabbagh and Sameh A.Habeeb, discussing Zionism, ...
"From the viewpoint of the Islamic Republic of Iran's principles, the US democrat and republican parties are both the two edges of the same scissors turning around the interests of the Zionist regime as their axis," member of the Iran parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Javad Karimi Qoddousi told FNA on Wednesday.
Noting that both US parties seek to maintain the Zionist regime's security in the Middle-East, he said, "They make no move without the consent of the multinational companies and the world's major economic cartels which are all under the influence of the Zionist lobby."
Many other political analysts throughout the world also believe that both the Republican and Democrat contenders for the November presidential race are merely lap dogs for the Zionist lobbies in the United States.
Merlin Miller, a US presidential candidate for the American Third Position Party (A3P), said in September that he firmly believes both major US political parties are controlled by the Zionist interests, and their candidates are basically picked by global elites long before the election.
He further noted that the whole presidential process in the United States is a sham, expressing regret that the American public is not aware of the reality.
Miller further stated that there is actually zero tolerance for anybody to be anti-Zionist in the US and personalities like film director Mel Gibson and CNN host Rick Sanchez were discredited simply for the sake of opposition to the actions of Israel and the Zionist lobbies.
At Thursday's meeting of PM Manmohan Singh's Council of Ministers, the first after the reshuffle, Chidambaram bluntly told his colleagues that the economy was in dire straits and the only way out was for the government to aggressively embark upon fiscal consolidation through controlling expenditure, especially subsidies, and by raising more resources through disinvestment in the remaining five months of the financial year.In return, he promised a "good budget" in 2013, the last full-fledged financial exercise before the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.
"If the 78 of us can get together for the next five months, 2013-14 can be a happy year," Chidambaram is learnt to have told his colleagues, while making the presentation on the "Current state of the economy" on Thursday. The government is particularly concerned about investments, from domestic and foreign, drying up. The recent surge of reform measures, many of them procedural in nature, is aimed at breaking the logjam and removing hurdles in investment flows.
The Finance minister's caution was at odds with the apparent satisfaction in the government on the flurry of reform measures on his watch and pulled against the hope in certain quarters that his fresh tenure would soon make up for lost opportunities over the past two years. The gloomy picture he drew up went further than what the government had so far admitted about the health of Asia's third largest economy.
The note of urgency came against the backdrop of the government's inability to persuade the Reserve Bank to pare interest rates to rev up growth that has languished below 5.5% for two straight quarters.
Chidambaram, who made a presentation at the meeting, made a strong pitch for attracting foreign investment, both FDI and FII. "Foreign investment is not an option, but an absolute necessity," a minister quoted Chidambaram as telling his audience after the PM handed over the floor to him.
While acknowledging that the government was "working against the political calendar", Singh too flagged the fiscal concerns. "Of particular concern is the fiscal deficit, which is too high and acts as a deterrent for domestic and foreign investment. These issues have a rippling effect across the economy," he said.
In his address, which struck many for its extraordinary candour, Chidambaram said he was having to meet investors to pacify their concerns and to impress upon them that India remained an investment option. However, he also said the investments were hobbled by problems relating to land acquisition, environmental clearance and local issues.
The bluntspeak was interpreted by many as aimed at the Congress leadership which has been insisting on increasing entitlements when the subsidy bill is already stretched. Even the references to the land acquisition bill and green clearances were seen through the same prism, as it is the Congress leadership that has sought to tighten the procedure for land acquisition and made the process of environmental clearances very stringent.
Many wondered whether it was Chidambaram's way of conditioning the party to the need for reining in expenditure and to scale down its expectation for bloated programmes in the lead-up to the elections.
Chidambaram said he did not fear a repeat of the 1991 crisis when India was left with forex reserves enough to cover its import bill for a couple of weeks, but warned that things could turn bleak if the government did not get its act together. All departments must show that they can perform, he said.
"In the first quarter of this financial year, GDP growth was 5.5 per cent, while in last quarter of last financial year it was 5.3 per cent, so it can be said that deceleration in growth has bottomed out," Ahluwalia said on the sidelines of a CII-Invest North conference ..The worrying fiscal deficit numbers have added to the government's woes as revenue collections have been below expectations and dwindling investments meant that the immediate future was bleak, according to the presentation. The finance ministry has already revised the targeted fiscal deficit numbers to 5.3% from the figure of 5.1% in the 2012 budget presented by Mukherjee. The fiscal consolidation roadmap unveiled by the FM on October 29 calls for reducing the fiscal deficit to 4.8% for the fiscal ending 31 March 2014 and to 3% by 2016-17.
Indian economy grew at a nine-year low rate of 5.3 per cent in January-March quarter in the last financial year and also in the last fiscal at 6.5 per cent. The economy showed signs of recovery when it grew by 5.5 per cent in the April-June quarter of 2012-2013.
Annual growth in the eight core sector industries more than doubled to a seven-month high of 5.1 per cent in September on good production in coal, cement and petroleum refinery sectors.
Showing signs of turnaround, industrial production measured in terms of Index of Industrial Production grew by 2.7 per cent in August, reversing the trend of contraction witnessed during the previous two months.
He said the recent steps taken by the government to revive sentiment and growth momentum in the economy will start showing results by January.
As of 2011-12, according to ET estimates, PSUs were sitting on cash of close to two lakh crores - the actual figure is almost certainly more since we only included large listed PSUs.
And while the central government owns a few hundred PSUs, just five of them - Coal India, ONGC, NMDCBSE 1.24 %, NTPCBSE 1.66 %, and Oil India account for around Rs 1.35 lakh crore of the total cash surplus of PSUs.
When asked about their expansion plans by ET, India's cash rich PSUs had ready answers. Whether or not they will actually put their money where their mouths are, is a different matter.
Part of the problem is the climate of uncertainty created by having to operate under constant scrutiny of a range of oversight bodies such as the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) and the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC).
"If you take business risk, you risk your job. If you don't take (investment) decisions, maximum you could be transferred," a senior executive working in ONGCBSE 0.38 % Videsh said, requesting anonymity.
Oil Giants
Government asks PSUs like CIL, ONGC, NMDC, NTPC to either invest or pay dividends on their surplus funds
Oil and Natural GasBSE 0.38 % Corp (ONGC), says the cash surplus is required for its operations in the capital intensive oil and gas exploration business. For the current fiscal ending March 31, ONGC has a planned expenditure of Rs 33,065 crore, the company told ET.
The second biggest exploration firm, Oil India LtdBSE -0.03 % too has substantial spending plans. "Oil India has a surplus of Rs 13,000 crore, but we intend to invest Rs 19,000 crore in the 12th plan and this excludes acquisitions and diversification," says Oil India Director-Finance TK Ananth Kumar.
ONGC and Oil India have to invest continuously on seismic surveys, exploratory drilling, developmental drilling, capital engineering projects, R&D, joint ventures and value-chain integration projects.
Given the cash balances, both companies expect to fund their investments largely through internal accruals.
ONGC said it was wrong to think that the surplus was idle and said it was needed for, "discharging various milestone payments such as corporate tax, dividend to shareholders including the govt., dividend tax, major contractual milestone payments for company's activities on exploration, development, production, etc."
Coal and Power
Coal IndiaBSE 0.82 % intends to spend its surpluses on equipment procurement, followed by opening of new mines and infrastructure development. Opening of coal washeries on build-operate- maintain basis with participation from private entrepreneurs, is another option for investment that CILBSE 0.82 % is seriously exploring. Expenditure on R&R schemes and land procurement is also considerable, the company told ET.
CIL is also planning to expedite the creation of railway infrastructure. "There are many projects where there is huge production potential but absence of railway infrastructure for coal evacuation has a slow down affect on production," the company said. "If this issue is resolved speedily, not only increased quantities of coal would be available to consumers but the coal bearing states also would be benefited monetarily in terms of royalty."
CIL is also planning to expedite the creation of railway infrastructure. "There are many projects where there is huge production potential but absence of railway infrastructure for coal evacuation has a slow down affect on production," the company said. "If this issue is resolved speedily, not only increased quantities of coal would be available to consumers but the coal bearing states also would be benefited monetarily in terms of royalty."
President Barack Obama accused Mitt Romney of scaring voters with lies while the Republican challenger warned of political paralysis and another recession if Obama reclaims the White House on Tuesday. A highly anticipated economic report failed to jolt the fiercely close race.
Obama and Romney both tried to seize on the monthly jobs report released on Friday to energize their bases and sway the few undecided voters still out there. The numbers held something for both candidates, showing the monthly unemployment rate ticked up slightly but created far more jobs than expected.
Obama argued the report proved his policies over the last four years have put the US on the road to recovery. The Democratic incumbent warned voters that a Romney presidency would resurrect the policies that got the US into financial trouble in the first place under Republican predecessor George W Bush.
Romney called the report a "sad reminder that the economy is at a virtual standstill" and warned grimly of political paralysis and another recession if Obama reclaims the White House.
He said an Obama presidency would mean more broken relations with Congress, showdowns over government shutdowns, a chilling effect on the economy and perhaps "another recession."
"He has never led, never worked across the aisle, never truly understood how jobs are created in the economy," said Romney, a former private equity firm executive, in a campaign stop in Wisconsin.
Obama personally assailed Romney over ads suggesting that automakers General Motors and Chrysler are adding jobs in China at the expense of auto-industry dependent Ohio. Both companies have called the ads untrue. The matter is sensitive in Ohio, perhaps the linchpin state of the election.
"I know we're close to an election, but this isn't a game," Obama said from Hilliard, Ohio, a heavily Republican suburb of capital Columbus. "These are people's jobs. These are people's lives ... you don't scare hardworking Americans just to scare up some votes."
Obama will face voters with the highest unemployment rate of any incumbent since Franklin Roosevelt during the Great Depression of the 1930s.
The government report showed the United States added a solid 171,000 jobs in October, and more than a half-million Americans joined the workforce, the latest signs that the uneven economic recovery is gaining strength once again. But the unemployment rate inched up to 7.9 per cent because not all those joining the workforce found work.
It was the final snapshot of the economy before the election Tuesday.
"We've made real progress," Obama told a crowd in Ohio shortly after the report. "But we've got more work to do."
While the politically neutral report was unlikely to affect the election outcome, it brought the economy back into the national conversation in a country still preoccupied with the devastation wrought by Superstorm Sandy on the US east coast.
Obama paused his campaigning for three days this week to manage the natural disaster. Romney muted criticism of the president during those days for fear of appearing to seek political advantage while Americans were suffering, and his campaign watched awkwardly as a once-prominent Obama critic, New Jersey's Republican governor Chris Christie, praised the president and toured storm damage with him.
Friday's report came after other signs that the economy is on the mend. Most important, consumer confidence is up to its highest level since February of 2008, according to the Conference Board.
Obama, who responded to recession with a roughly $800 billion stimulus plan and expanded the auto industry bailout begun under Bush, wants to raise taxes on the wealthy and ensure they pay 30 per cent of their income at minimum. To create jobs, he would push to steer money toward energy development, education and worker training, manufacturing support and infrastructure.
Romney firmly opposes raising taxes on families. He has pledged to keep Bush-era tax cuts for all incomes and drop all tax rates further. He also promises to cut $500 billion per year from the federal budget by 2016, although he has been under pressure to explain how he will accomplish that while also lowering taxes. Romney pledges to curtail deductions, credits and exemptions for the wealthiest, but he has not provided specifics.
Polling shows the race remains a legitimate toss-up heading into the final days, but Obama holds a slight lead in a majority of the battleground states where the outcome of the vote is likely to be determined.
Under the US system, the nationwide popular vote does not determine the winner. Romney and Obama are actually competing to win at least 270 electoral votes in state-by-state contests. Those electoral votes are apportioned to states based on a mix of population and representation in Congress.
Romney has the tougher path to victory because he must win more of the nine most-contested states to reach 270 electoral votes: Ohio, Florida, Virginia, North Carolina, Colorado, Nevada, Wisconsin, Iowa and New Hampshire.
In a late, concerted effort to change that landscape, the former Massachusetts governor was making a push into Pennsylvania, a state that has been considered solid Democratic territory and that Obama won comfortably in 2008.
Romney's foray into Pennsylvania is not folly. Unlike states that emphasize early voting, Pennsylvania will see most votes cast on Election Day. The state has not been saturated with political advertising, giving Romney and his supporting groups — still flush with cash — an opportunity to sway last-minute voters with a barrage of commercials. Obama is countering by buying commercial time in the state as well and is sending former President Bill Clinton into the state to campaign.
COLOMBO: Three decades of subsidizing the farmers of South Asia through the policies of public procurement and public food distribution has only marginally improved their lives say latest findings from research under the aegis of the Global Development Network, a research capacity building programme.
Economists at the I nstitute of Policy Studies of Sri Lankaworking as part of a GDN project on the challenges to food security and rural livelihoods in South Asia have found that little evidence exists to prove the link between South Asia's farm output growth in the past three decades and any agricultural price and procurement policies.
These findings come at a time when south Asian economies, especially India, are grappling with a ballooning food subsidy bill that is straining government finances and making it tough to reduce fiscal deficit.
"Technological improvements during these decades have certainly influenced this positive trend, but the role of price risk reduction remains unclear and the costs of government intervention in agriculture are high and have increased over time.," says the GDN policy brief on government procurement released here.
According to the brief, government interventions have not achieved their major objectives of improving farmer welfare, and achieving agricultural price stability and general food security to the desired extent. Therefore, the debate about the necessity of government intervention is still an open one.
The brief points out that increased domestic price stability should have contributed to the income stability of farmers. The domestic prices of food grains kept artificially high by such policies could have made it possible for farmers to adopt expensive modern inputs. However the contribution of price risk reduction through price procurement policies to technological improvements is not clear, it says.
Moreover, it hampered crop diversification, which could help South Asian agriculture. In spite of this, current public procurement and food distribution policies are likely to continue in some countries due to the high political priority they receive, the brief adds.
So is there a better solution to improving farmer livelihoods? According to the brief, it may lie in a combination of government intervention and private sector efforts. ""The only logical way forward is to modify them to suit the rapidly changing global and local economic conditions, particularly following trade liberalization. Instead of uniform prices, regional differences in production costs and quality should be taken into account in setting procurement prices,"" it says.
Goverments should also improve procurement mechanisms by adequately covering all production areas and by improving general efficiency of the procurement system. Buffer stock maintenance should be modified to eliminate conflicts between the twin objectives of stabilizing farm prices and ensuring consumers' easy access to food. Subsidized food grainBSE 4.99 % should be available through a system of ration coupons granted to the targeted households. Recipients should be able to use coupons to buy food from any store, thereby eliminating any 'intermediary' ration shop owners.
Meanwhie,Overseas investors, many of whom are creditors to the highly-indebted US government, reckon a re-election of President Barack Obama would be best for world markets even if US counterparts say otherwise.For the second month in a row, Reuters' monthly survey of top fund managers around the world was evenly split when asked whether a win for incumbent Democrat Barack Obama or Republican hopeful Mitt Romney in the Nov. 6 presidential poll would be good for global markets.
The split was clearly dependant on whether the asset manager was based in the United States or not. Domestic funds, by and large, tend to favour Romney; overseas investors Obama.
Given the outside perception of the contest in Europe at least, where surveys by pollster YouGov on Wednesday showed fewer than 10 percent of Europeans would vote for Romney if given the choice, that may not be terribly surprising.
But that shouldn't necessarily explain why supposedly hard- nosed money managers would think an Obama re-election would be better for their portfolios. So is there a something other that regional political sensibilities behind the difference of investor views?
Franco-Belgian Dexia Asset Management, for example, cited long-term uncertainty of a radical U.S. policy shift in such febrile economic times.
"(Romney's) election could lead to more political and economic uncertainties over the longer term as he would implement an ambitious tax reform, huge spending cuts, a tax plan favourable to the highest income based on a too-optimistic growth scenario that would produce uncertain effects on growth," it said in response to this week's Reuters poll.
Yet, the shorter term picture is very different. Financial market commentary across the world seems to have converged on an loose assumption that a Romney victory would be good for stocks and an Obama reelection good for bonds.
The thinking goes along the lines that Romney would dodge the "fiscal cliff" more easily by allying with a Republican House of Representatives to retain or introduce more tax cuts on business and the wealthy while slashing government spending.
By removing the fiscal uncertainty with a pro-business tilt, it is argued, corporate planning will resume with gusto and lead to a surge in pent-up capital expenditure and retail spending, a macro growth fillip and a resulting slipstream for stock prices.
Flip all that around for Obama. A deeper political divide on taxes and spending between the White House and Congress could see at least a temporary fall off the cliff, stalling growth for a period and boosting safe-haven bonds.
Monetary arguments reinforce that bond picture. A Romney team sceptical of hyper-active Federal Reserve stimuli would be unlikely to renominate Fed chief Ben Bernanke for a third term in 2014. It would opt for more hawkish, inflation-focussed chairman than a Obama-led White House.
The Crisis Of The Israel Lobby In US – OpEd
By: Mondoweisshttp://www.eurasiareview.com/07102012-the-crisis-of-the-israel-lobby-in-us-oped/
October 7, 2012
By Philip Weiss
All around us are signs that the Israel lobby is about to take it on the chin in November. Netanyahu injected himself into our presidential race, and Romney accused Obama of throwing Israel "under the bus." I thought the alarmism would work. It hasn't. Obama defied Netanyahu, and he's not paying a political price for it.
The American Jewish Committee's poll says that Romney is capturing 27 percent of the Jewish vote– not much more than the 22 percent McCain got. In Ohio, neoconservative challenger Josh Mandel is about to be crushed by Democratic incumbent Senator Sherrod Brown, Amy Schiller at Daily Beast reports, despite Mandel's pro-Israel appeals:
His campaign claimed that "Sherrod Brown and President Obama have lost the faith of Jewish Democrats." Mandel told me that Brown's extensive support from J Street made him "more of a Palestinian sympathizer than a true friend of Israel."
United States
Ohio Jews aren't buying that. As the AJC poll says, most American Jews put Israel at a distant third or fourth among the issues that they vote on.
OK, so the lobby has stumbled. What does the future hold? A few observations and predictions:
–The lobby didn't dissolve, it split
This is not the end of the lobby. No, this is a victory for J Street and the liberal Zionist community, which fervently believes in the U.S. continuing to give tons of money to Israel and overlooking the atrocities of the occupation.
–The rightwing lobby is already regrouping for a battle royal on Iran.
Yes the lobby has lost, but it's not as if Obama has shifted his policy on Iran, he's just put it off by a few months. Israel supporters Martin Indyk, David Brooks, Dennis Ross, and Jeffrey Goldberg have all assured us lately that Obama is ready to attack by next spring. Even "Bomber boy" Bill Kristol has embraced Obama's Iran policy, surely anticipating that Obama is going to win. And Tony Karon and David Bromwich have both warned that Obama has painted himself into the corner on such an attack.
So the next battle with the lobby will unfold in months to come. Goldberg has warned shrilly that Obama could change his mind. He fears that all the talk of deterrence from sober pundits like Bill Keller and Trudy Rubin will take hold. As it should. And will the new liberal wing of the lobby endorse such a shift? I doubt it.
–The handshake on the White House lawn
Three years ago J Street and the liberal Zionists said that they would drive a wedge in public opinion on the settlements issue, and Obama could come out against settlements and hold the majority of the Jewish community. They were wrong. Obama had to fold on settlements because the rightwing Jewish community organized against him and the liberal Zionists, and neoconservative appeals found a sympathetic audience even among liberal Jews (the ancient issue; the same liberals rationalized Jewish terrorism in the mandate period).
I believe J Street and Americans for Peace Now were just ahead of their time; that they will be able to drive that wedge now, and Obama will come out against settlements.
Indeed, if Obama had any guts he'd be teeing this issue up now, so that he can claim a "mandate" come November 7. To what end? Antony Loewenstein said lately that there could be a handshake on the White House lawn in the second term, between Abbas and an Israeli counterpart– to produce a Bantustan state.
And if you give Palestinians a Bantustan state, nothing is going to change. There won't be peace.
So the lobby has cracked, I agree. But the real battle is over Zionism itself. When will American Jews form a political bloc against an ideology that fosters discriminatory policies in the Middle East that they would never tolerate in the U.S.? Until that process happens, the lobby will just keep regrouping. The liberal Jewish community will continue to frame the issue as an argument between neocons and liberal Zionists. No anti-Zionists allowed!
The best news from this election is that if you politicize this issue– allowing it to be debated– public opinion will drive the politicians' conversations to the left because Americans don't like our tilted policy. That debate has a long way to go.
Philip Weiss is Founder and Co-Editor of Mondoweiss.net. This article appeared at Mondoweiss.net here.
Viewpoints: The U.S. Presidential Election
Worldpress.orgOctober 24, 2012
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Argentina – Buenos Aires Herald, Oct. 23: Two weeks before the election, the sharpest divide in the American electorate is not between Red (Republican) and Blue (Democratic) states; it is gender. The gender gap in political preferences in the U.S. in 2012 is the second widest since 1980. If Obama wins the election, he will have to thank women for his victory. If women turn out at lower rates than men, Romney could win the election.
China – Xinhua, Oct. 24: During the latest U.S. presidential election debate, both candidates voiced willingness to collaborate with China but at the same time blamed the country for America's domestic woes. The candidates … should realize that simply blaming China will not do—only by working on the origins of America's downward economic situation can they really solve domestic problems such as unemployment. … Blaming China for the high unemployment and dim exports of the United States is an easy way for the Obama administration to divert responsibility and Romney to woo voters.
Egypt – Ahram Online, Oct. 24: Many in the Middle East believe Barack Obama failed to deliver on promises of a new U.S. approach in the region but still prefer him to presidential rival Mitt Romney, who they see as too close to Israel and too keen to project U.S. military might. … Romney angered Palestinians earlier this year by suggesting they lacked the culture that has driven Israel's economic success, while ignoring problems generated by Israeli occupation of territories where the Palestinians seek statehood.
http://www.worldpress.org/Americas/3942.cfm
Sheldon Adelson's billions shape US politics as many question his influence
Casino mogul is sparing no expense to get Romney elected, a win that would benefit his businesses and his bank account
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- Rory Carroll in Las Vegas, Tania Branigan in Beijing and Harriet Sherwood in Jerusalem
- The Guardian, Thursday 1 November 2012 18.07 GMT
Sheldon Adelson outfoxed rival moguls to open a casino in Macau and has used the billions it generates to influence US politics. Photograph: Kin Cheung/AP
Every day three scenes, on the surface unconnected, unfold in different corners of the world. By breakfast time in Macau, China's gambling mecca, thousands of people are inside vast casino resorts spending money on baccarat, poker, slot machines and restaurants. Managers monitor the profit by the hour.
By lunchtime in Israel commuters and shoppers are perusing Israel Hayom, a brash giveaway tabloid and the country's most-read newspaper. It supports the government of Binyamin Netanyahu. And it clobbers rival dailies to the point of extinction.
By dinnertime viewers in Florida, Ohio, Colorado, Nevada and other swing states in the US presidential election are watching, for the umpteenth time that day, television advertisements attacking Barack Obama and promoting Mitt Romney. Their volume and cost have set records.
This eclectic, global triptych is connected by a fourth, less visible scene. In the quiet hum of his air-conditioned Las Vegas headquarters a short, portly man with thinning red hair absorbs reports detailing it all, Macau, Israel, the election, because in every one he is a player. He crunches the profits, circulation and polling and ponders his next move. His name is Sheldon Adelson, and he is one of the world's richest men.
"I suppose you could say that I live on Vince Lombardi's belief. Winning isn't everything, it's the only thing," he told a recent interviewer, citing the legendary American football coach. "So, I do whatever it takes, as long as it's moral, ethical, principled, legal."
No one doubts Adelson, 79, lives to win. But with the White House race entering the final stretch of what both sides call the most important election in decades there is growing controversy over his business interests and methods.
"I've studied Sheldon Adelson closely but I don't claim to know him," said John L Smith, a Las Vegas-based author and columnist who tangled with him in a bitter court case. "I'm like a kid at the zoo watching the big predator but not understanding."
How the son of immigrants – Adelson's Lithuanian-born father was a taxi driver, his British-born mother a seamstress – rose from poverty in Boston's tough Dorchester district to become a force in global politics and commerce is, depending on your perspective, an inspiring story of entrepreneurial grit and flair, or a cautionary tale of plutocracy and democratic dysfunction.
Adelson, with a fortune valued at over $20bn, controls a unique web linking gaming empires in Nevada and Asia, media control in Israel and mega-donations to Romney and other Republican candidates.
He represents a new breed of tycoon, said Chrystia Freeland, the editor of Thomson Reuters Digital and author of Plutocrats: the rise of the new global super-rich and the fall of everyone else. "The caricature is of conspicuous consumption, yachts and jets, but for the super-rich the real status symbol is having a voice, having an impact on public policy, and in that sense Sheldon is characteristic of his class."
He is not shy about declaring his wealth. "You know," he reportedly bragged to George W Bush, when he was president in 2008, "I am the richest Jew in the world."
If few knew that then, many know now. Adelson has burst onto the international stage by becoming, as one observer noted, "sugar daddy" to zionist and conservative causes.
He is a modern Croesus who converts cash into influence. The question, which to critics becomes more urgent with each day of the campaign, is the extent to which he may convert, or try to convert, influence into cash. In a written reply to Guardian questions, Adelson said he wished only that the White House invite him to its annual Hanukah party and save him some potato pancakes.
'He doesn't give up'
A Romney victory could yield Adelson billions in tax cuts and make the White House an ally. His businesses are under investigation from the justice department and other agencies over alleged wrongdoing in Asia.There was little in his background to suggest Adelson would become the right's impresario. Reared in liberal Massachusetts, he worked his way through multiple jobs – vending machine salesman, court reporter, real estate dealer, toiletries packager – and scored big with Comdex, a computer trade show he launched in 1979.
In 1988 he bought a chunk of the Sands hotel and casino, a fading, one-time rat pack haunt and turned it into Las Vegas Sands Corporation, a glitzy triumph with the Venetian as its flagship. He gambled, correctly, that if he built convention centres conferences would flock to Sin City.
Even in a town known to be filled with tough operators, Adelson's steeliness stood out. He drove aides as hard as he did himself, did not take no for an answer, and did not forgive trespasses.
He successfully sued the Daily Mail for libel and in a separate case went after Smith and his publisher, Barricade Books, over a depiction of Adelson in Smith's book Sharks in the Desert.
Threatened with a $15m lawsuit, the publisher entered bankruptcy and agreed to a judgement of libel. Smith also entered bankruptcy. A judge dismissed the suit against him and ordered Adelson to pay some of the author's costs. "He's a real sweetheart," said Smith. "He doesn't give up."
Ron Reese, a spokesman who who has represented Adelson for a decade, defended his boss. "It is easy to be a critic of someone if you don't know them, haven't taken the time to learn about their values, or if you are simply jealous of their accomplishments. It's a lot like criticising the coaches and players of a football match you didn't watch or attend. The fact is, Mr Adelson is among the world's greatest philanthropists and has created tens of thousands of jobs throughout his business career."
What vaulted Adelson into a league Donald Trump can only dream of was Macau, the former Portuguese colony that is part of China and hosts gambling under the "one country, two systems formula".
He outfoxed rival casino moguls to open the territory's first Las Vegas-style resort, the Sands Macao, in 2004. In reality it is two vast resorts, one of them the world's biggest. On its first day the crowd reportedly ripped doors off their hinges in a stampede for the gaming tables. Adelson recouped his $265m investment within a year.
"In 2004-5 the big question was when Macau would overtake Las Vegas; it was taking about $4bn to Las Vegas's $6bn. Now Macau is taking nearly $40bn a year - and Las Vegas is still on about $6bn," said Aaron Fischer, head of consumer and gaming research at CLSA Asia Pacific Markets.
Asia – he expanded into Singapore – has made him a multi-billionaire. "Other guys have made promises that may be they weren't able to deliver on. Sheldon stuck to the promises that he made [to officials] even though they have not always been perceived to have the best relationship," said Fischer.
"He doesn't have a reputation for always saying the right thing. I really think he's a character. I respect him and I find him to be quite honest and very down to earth. Maybe that's sometimes been his problem; he's not very good at diplomacy."
Sergio Terra, editorial executive director of the Portugese-language newspaper Tribuna Macau, said Chinese officials bristled even as they benefited from Adelson's investment.
"He wanted everything and everything first. That's not the way the Macau government works. And he had to adjust to the Beijing approach. They don't like pressure."
One veteran observer of the casino industry, who declined to be named, said Adelson charged through barriers. "It's served him well but he might have knocked down a few too many and used weapons that are going to be subject to review by regulators. I think his quest is to be the world's richest man – I don't think he's made any secret of that. He's always referring to his ranking."
Las Vegas Sands faces three lawsuits over its Macau operations: a former executive, Steve Jacobs, claims wrongful dismissal and alleges the company collaborated with triads and sought to blackmail officials. The company is also snagged in a bribery scandal and claims it violated US anti-money laundering laws. Adelson vehemently denies wrongdoing. "We're going to be found absolutely clean," he said last year. The company blamed the accusations on disgruntled former employees.
Breaking into the Israeli newspaper market
Macau is the golden egg, but Israel is Adelson's enduring passion. The mogul often tells the story how he stepped off the plane for the first time wearing the shoes of his late father, who had been too poor to travel. His commitment has grown since marrying his second wife, Miriam, an Israeli, in 1991.The Adelsons have underwritten think tanks, exchange programmes, DC-based lobby groups and, most controversially, the interests of Netanyahu. Adelson believes Israel's hawkish prime minister is a necessary bulwark to supposed peace talks and Palestinian statehood, a prospect he abhors.
After false starts, Adelson established his tabloid, Israel Hayom, in 2007. It now has a 38% share of the weekday newspaper market, compared to 36% for its main rival Yedioth Ahronoth, 11% for Ma'ariv and 7% for Haaretz.
The heavily advertised paper is given away by uniformed distributors on the streets, outside supermarkets and at gas stations. It also has paid home-delivery sales.
Its partisanship earned the nicknamed "Bibiton", a play on the prime minister's nickname and the Hebrew word for newspaper.
Many have blamed it for the catastrophic demise of paid-for newspapers. Maariv faces possible closure. Haaretz is also in crisis, with layoffs and pay cuts looming. Yedioth announced cutbacks earlier this year, including dozens of job losses.
The Israeli business website Globes quoted a senior Yedioth executive as saying: "You must know that Israel Hayom is destroying Israeli journalism not only at the professional level, with its embarrassing editorial conduct, but also at the economic level."
Israel Hayom was breaking the market with ads at zero cost, crippling rivals' revenue streams, he said. "Israel Hayom has finished Ma'ariv, and it is now finishing Haaretz. Adelson has simply brought ruin."
The mogul's friends disagree. "He put his money up for an alternative voice and people liked it. That's capitalism," said Sig Rogich, a businessman and media consultant in Las Vegas. Rogich also defended his friend's plunge into this year's US presidential and congressional races after years of confining himself to Nevada politics. He has shattered records by spending an estimated $70m backing Republican candidates nationwide.
"This is a country built on the principle of freedom of speech," said Rogich. "When George Soros funded the other side no one complained. Sheldon has been transparent (about his contributions). You have to admire the truthfulness of standing up and telling the world that's he's responsible for the message."
Sheldon Adelson and his wife, Miriam, expanded their involvement in US politics out of Nevada and onto a national state in the 2012 presidential campaign. Photograph: Jason Reed/Reuters Adelson backed Newt Gingrich in the primaries but rowed in behind Romney. As the money has flowed, and as Paul Ryan and other Republican figures paid homage to their benefactor in Las Vegas, the New York Times, among others, asked what does he expect in return.
Consciously or not, at a private fundraiser Romney echoed Adelson's views when he appeared to dismiss a two-state solution and said the Palestinians had no interest in peace. The Republican's proposed tax cuts could swell the mogul's bank account by about $2bn.
In an interview with Politico, Adelson, who runs the only non-unionised resort on the Las Vegas strip, accused Obama's administration of waging a vendetta. If Romney wins, observers will closely watch the fate of the probes into Adelson's businesses.
Onkar Ghate, a vice-president of the Ayn Rand Institute, which champions free markets, said tycoons had a right to fight back against vindictive governments: "If they spend money purely defensively then I think that's entirely correct."
But others, including the Economist, fret that Super Pacs backed by the "0.1%" are rigging the system and entrenching inequality. "It is hard to believe that this surge of cash from the richest will have no impact at all."
Freeland, the author of Plutocrats, said Adelson's activism raised profound issues. "Democracy is supposed to be one person, one vote. But when economic disparity grows and transfers into political disparity, well, you have to ask where it's going."
A conversation with Sheldon Adelson
Guardian: You have made substantial donations to the Romney campaign. Do you expect a return from this investment? How do you respond to critics who say you are buying influence?Sheldon Adelson: I do not expect any type of return, except that if the candidate we are supporting becomes president he maintains this country's freedom and its free-market capitalist ways, as opposed to his opponent who I believe is following socialist policies – it may work in other countries, but not here.
There is absolutely no expectation of any favoritism whatsoever, though If I'm fortunate enough to be invited to the White House Hanukkah Party I hope someone would save me a couple of potato pancakes. They ran out the last time I was there.
Guardian: Some critics also say a Romney victory could yield you billions in tax cuts and possible protection from multiple investigations into your business affairs. How do you respond?
SA: I would be entitled to no preferential tax cuts or any other type of preferential treatment whatsoever. Any tax cuts that would apply to me would apply to President Obama, his wealthy donors, and everyone else. By the way, what is wrong with supporting a candidate whose economic views and values are the same as yours?
Guardian: It's been said of you that you are probably the most aggressive, unforgiving individual in the business world today. What do you say to that?
SA: Friends I've had for as long as 70 years would never match that word with me or my way of life. The word unforgiving and my name don't belong together – it is inconsistent with my concept of giving away much more than I make or spend on my family to help repair the world – through our drug treatment centers which rehabilitate drug addicts, specifically women who turn to prostitution because of drugs; our medical research foundation; the strong support we provide for our military veterans here in the United States and many other causes.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/nov/01/sheldon-adelson-billions-politics-influence
The Zionist Challenge
October 10, 2012, 3:10 pm
More in this blog
- Life, liberty and the pursuit of nuclear weapons.
- Survival in the post-American world
- Jesus!
- Letter to J Street
- Kofi Annan to the rescue
About half year ago the Dutch National Committee 4 and 5th of May announced its brand new plan for this year's World War Two memorial services: Why not have a child read a poem about an uncle who volunteered for the Waffen SS? And why not do so on Dam Square in Amsterdam in the presence of the Queen? After all a guy who betrayed his country, volunteered for Hitler's ideological shock troops and died at the hands of the Red Army is also a victim worth remembering. Right?
Yeah, right.
When Jewish groups and others let it known that, you know, maybe this is not such a good idea the country was in shock. "Why the hate" people said. "Why the intolerance". Did we not realize the war was over? How was it possible that Jews -of all people- could not understand that a member of the Waffen SS was also a human being? It was surrealistic, yet at the same time reassuringly familiar, if you are used to arguing with anti-Zionists at least. Jews were once again being accused of monopolizing victim hood, of being intolerant and hateful and obviously of not understanding the significance of the Shoah. The topic may have been different. The arguments were the same.
A couple of years earlier, on the 4th of May 2002, something similar occurred in the city of Lelystad. There, at the World War Two remembrance day ceremony, it was decided not to give the local Jewish community permission to recite Kaddish. Operation Defensive Shield had just ended and the country was still awash in anti-Israel hysteria. People were in a state of shock that the Jewish state, which had happily put up with eight years of crude missile attacks from Gaza, suddenly for no apparent reason started firing back. Outraged crowds, mostly consisting of our Islamic cousins, roamed the streets of Holland and some of them were caught on camera praising Hitler. Not wanting to insult the Muslim participants of the ceremony, the organizers decided they didn't want to inflame the situation by allowing Jews to recite Kaddish.
I didn't know this, but apparently Jews reciting their memorial prayer on a day when people remember the victims of World War Two can be deeply offensive. Unlike, let's say, building a Mosque near the ruins of Word Trade Center in New York.
The madness never abates. A few years ago a Dutch politician called for paying more attention in schools to the role Muslims played in the liberation of the Netherlands. Since pupils with a Muslim background often make it impossible to teach about the Holocaust, either by erupting in cheers or claiming it never happened, such plans are supposed to garner enthusiasm by giving those kids something to relate to. I am not terribly sure if lying about the Holocaust is any more helpful than simply banning the subject, as British schools prefer to do. But if Dutch politicians want to make Muslim pupils feel more enthusiastic about the Second World War, wouldn't it be more effective to teach them about those two Islamic Waffen SS divisions?
TOLERANCE
What's fascinating of course is that all these things occur in a country which preaches tolerance for minorities night and day. And especially tolerance for Muslims, who are deemed to be in a similar position as the Jews of the 1930ies. Hypocritical? Well, kinda more like schizophrenic. It's common knowledge that Jews are rich, that they control America and dominate the media so obviously they should not be considered part of a minority. Muslims on the other hand, who consist of barely 1.5 billion people and form the majority in just a tiny little group of approximately 55 nations, clearly are a weak and vulnerable minority that urgently needs to be protected from the racist hordes. It's a confusing reality where Antisemitic tropes are used to deny Jews protection from Antisemitism.
Why does this happen?
Now, some people say this is just the Left being stupid and overly idealistic.They want to create a perfect society and make amends for colonialism and the Holocaust by erring on the side of tolerance. What's wrong with that? Well, it may be true up to a point -especially the stupid part- but it doesn't add up. Being tolerant for the intolerant clashes with all kinds of freedoms that were thought to be core values of the left. Equality between men and women for example, gay rights and the protection of (religious) minorities from extermination. Just to name a few.
But there's something curious about Leftist tolerance. You see, they are not tolerant for the intolerant per se. When pastor Terry Jones wants to burn a Koran, everybody on the Left trips over themselves trying to condemn him. They are not being tolerant to the intolerant out of principle, and not just because they don't have any principles. They are only being tolerant of one type of group: Those who want to kill their political opponents.
This is all about power. Elections are nice and all, but you need to win them all the time in order to stay in power and that can be a drag. Wouldn't it be nicer if somebody just whacks your opponent instead?
ISRAELI DETOUR
Let's make an Israeli detour and get a little paranoid. It always mystified me why the Israeli left refused to accept that Arafat and the Palestinians were not adhering to the Oslo peace accords. Even though that endangered the very peace the Israeli Left was claiming they were trying to achieve. Why did they do that? Why were Peres and Beilin lying, denying and covering up for the Palestinians? To deflect accusations from the Likud that the Palestinians were breaking the accords? If their goal was to make the peace process a success, wouldn't you think it was of utmost importance to make sure the Palestinians kept their side of the deal instead of covering up that they didn't? It seems to me the Israeli Left had priorities other than peace. Just like the Palestinians, incidentally.
This fits a pattern where the Left (which is a mindset, not an organisation) adopts a policy as a means to destroy, not defeat, their political opponents on the right. There are a number of reasons why the Israeli Left yearns so much for pre-1967 Israel and the most important one is that in those days they called the shots. It's not unreasonable to assume -from a Leftist perspective- that once the territories were gone the Likud and the parties on the right would return to be as marginal as they were before the Six Day War. That's why they didn't care too much when Arafat called for Jihad, supported and praised Hamas, and claimed the peace process was a trick to destroy Israel. They just wanted to get rid of the territories and start winning elections. So what if they destroyed any chance for peace for another generation or so.
PATTERNS
Yeah I know it sounds outrageous to claim that the Israeli Left was not motivated by the desire for peace. But you know what? This pattern is repeated just about everywhere. Take a look at environmental policies. The Left embraced the Global Warming scam despite the dodgy science because it offered the possibility to centralize power on a global scale. Yeah I know the centralization of power is supposed to be just a happy coincidence of all these Leftist schemes but I don't buy that anymore. Why does everything they propose requires total control? Is it because those plans are so great, or because they attract people hungry for power?
Think about it: if you care about nature and if you care about the well being of the planet, how smart is it to ram through a vision based on lies and deception which is bound to be discredited? Not very much I guess. But why would you care if you are only interested in power?
The list goes on an on. The UN is an absolute disgrace which makes a mockery out of international law, even though its purpose is to uphold it. Humanitarian aid to Africa helps to keep the continent poor, their dictators in power and our failed politicians employed. But it doesn't help anyone which leads to widespread disenchantment with international aid. Meanwhile multiculturalism in Europe, supposedly introduced as an antidote to Nazism, is now the main driver for xenophobia and instability. Why is that good?
The one thing these policies don't do is advance their own cause. They do however provide a nice opportunity to damage traditional structures of society and exert more control over individuals. That's what it is all about, not those little things like peace, the environment, social justice etc. Those are just slogans to get you on the bandwagon.
THE ENGINE OF FREEDOM
People throughout the ages have been in thrall with a vision of Utopia. The Left harnesses those desires and rides them. Religions do it as well. "Give us your vote to create a perfect society" they say where -what a coincidence!- the Left will be in charge. However, just like Plato explained in The Republic, in order to create such an Utopia you need absolute control. Freedom is the enemy of any perfect society. Just ask the Iranians or the people of North Korea. As long as people are free they may behave in ways that are less than perfect. So you can't have that. Neither can you have unity and freedom at the same time. The opposition therefore must be destroyed.
How to do that? How to destroy the ability of a people to maintain their freedom? The engines of individual freedom are free markets and the nation states which protect them. As the wealth of a people increases so too does its demand to control its own fate. That's why African dictatorships absolutely love Western subsidies. As long as the money keeps coming they have no need to allow a middle class from forming which in an ordinary situation would have been needed in order to provide the government with funds. Poverty is much more preferable to them because poor people are not a threat. Contrary to Leftist propaganda poverty does not breed resentment and then violence. You need a certain level or prosperity for that. What poverty really does is that it keeps people too occupied with trying to survive in order to form any sort of threat. In order to establish Utopia, you will therefore need to destroy the ability of an economy to provide prosperity. You will need to attack the nation-state.
THE HEART OF ZIONISM
A people that is not downtrodden will demand power from its rulers. It is a truth that lies at the heart (or very close to it) of Zionism. Jews have experienced the reality the Utopian dream. Of not having their own state and no army, which just meant being powerless and at the mercy of others. It wasn't a very uplifting experience, to say the least. But a Jewish state giving the Jews freedom, prosperity and a means to defend themselves has been an intoxicating experience despite all the challenges. For us the ultimate lesson of the Second World War is that we need our own place where our culture is dominant and we have the means to defend ourselves. As a consequence we have become more than just nationalists. We are in love with our independence. It is the ultimate anti-dote to the horrors of the Shoah. However the Left concluded something quite different from that event.
Just like Christianity and Islam the Left bases its ideology and beliefs on a fundamentally Jewish experience. And just like Christianity and Islam their conclusions are the direct opposite of what a large majority of Jews, as a result of those experiences, generally believe
As a Christian you are supposed to believe that Judaism, a religion which rejects the notion God having any kind of form, let alone a human one, culminated in the appearance of a God-man. As a Muslim you are not only supposed to believe that Islam predates Judaism, but also that the Torah on which Mohammed based his Koran was distorted by the Jews. And finally, as a Leftist, you are supposed to believe that the Holocaust, which seared the need for independence into our collective consciousness, requires the dismantlement of nations and the abandonment of national identity. If they are right, shouldn't Jews be the first to believe in Jesus, accept the Koranic version of Biblical events and reject the notion of states, let alone a Jewish one? How is it possible, if their ideas make any sense, that Jews cling to their own religion, history and country despite all the pressure?
Because they are wrong. And they know that as long as we are around we are a testament of them being wrong. This is why like Christianity before them, and Islam today, the Left must try and rid itself of the Jews, discredit our history and demonize Zionism or else risk the collapse of their worldview. Because if a Jewish state is good for the Jews, why would the Dutch -or any other European nation- agree to dismantle their own country and merge into a European Union where power is centralized in the hands of the few? Why would anyone agree to hand over control over their own fate?
http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/22646/
Zionism
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Zionism (Hebrew: ציונות, Tsiyonut) is a form of nationalism of Jews and Jewish culture that supports a Jewish nation state in territory defined as the Land of Israel.[1] Zionism supports Jews upholding their Jewish identity and opposes the assimilation of Jews into other societies and has advocated the return of Jews to Israel as a means for Jews to be liberated from anti-Semitic discrimination, exclusion, and persecution that has occurred in other societies.[1] Since the establishment of the State of Israel, the Zionist movement continues primarily to advocate on behalf of the Jewish state and address threats to its continued existence and security. In a less common usage, the term may also refer to non-political, cultural Zionism, founded and represented most prominently by Ahad Ha'am; and political support for the State of Israel by non-Jews, as in Christian Zionism.
Critics of Zionism consider it a colonialist[2] or racist[3] movement. Some scholars consider certain forms[4][5] of opposition to Zionism to constitute Antisemitism.[6][7]
Contents |
Overview
The common denominator among all Zionists is the claim to Eretz Israel as the national homeland of the Jews and as the legitimate focus for the Jewish national self-determination (as shown, among others, by Gideon Shimoni).[8] It is based on historical ties and religious traditions linking the Jewish people to the Land of Israel.[9] Zionism does not have a uniform ideology, but has evolved in a dialogue among a plethora of ideologies: General Zionism, Religious Zionism, Labor Zionism, Revisionist Zionism, Green Zionism, etc.
After almost two millennia of existence of the Jewish diaspora without a national state, the Zionist movement was founded in the late 19th century by secular Jews, largely as a response by Ashkenazi Jews to rising antisemitism in Europe, exemplified by the Dreyfus affair in France and the Anti-Jewish pogroms in the Russian Empire.[10] The political movement was formally established by the Austro-Hungarian journalist Theodor Herzl in 1897 following the publication of his book Der Judenstaat.[11] At that time, the movement sought to encourage Jewish migration to the Ottoman Palestine.
Although initially one of several Jewish political movements offering alternative responses to assimilation and antisemitism, Zionism grew rapidly and became the dominant force in Jewish politics with the destruction of Jewish life in Central and Eastern Europe where these alternative movements were rooted.
The movement was eventually successful in establishing Israel on May 14, 1948 (5 Iyyar 5708 in the Hebrew calendar), as the homeland for the Jewish people. The proportion of the world's Jews living in Israel has also steadily grown since the movement came into existence and over 40% of the world's Jews now live in Israel, more than in any other country. These two outcomes represent the historical success of Zionism, unmatched by any other Jewish political movement in the past 2,000 years.
In some academic studies, Zionism has been analyzed both within the larger context of diaspora politics and as an example of modern national liberation movements.[12]
Zionism was also directed at assimilation into the modern world. As a result of the Diaspora, many of the Jewish people were outcasts and had no knowledge of the modern era.[citation needed] There were Jews who desired complete assimilation and were willing to neglect their faith in an attempt at modernization. The assimilationists, who are depicted[by whom?] as truly messianic, were a radical group in Jewish history. They desired a pure revolution: a complete integration of Jews into European society. This would dispel any dissimilarity between Jews and non-Jews. They are described as messianic in their anticipation and desire of a new era.[citation needed] Assimilationists were not concerned with keeping their own identity but wanted homogeneity.[citation needed] They would disband their traditional views and opinions as long as it insured complete assimilation into the modern world. Another less radical form of assimilation was called cultural synthesis.[citation needed] Those in favor of cultural synthesis emphasized an obligation to maintain traditional Jewish values but also a need to conform to a modernist society. They are described[by whom?] as defensive and sought to reject the pure revolution that the assimilationists promoted. They aimed to eradicate any disparity between Jewish and modern life. However (in contrast with assimilationists), they also wanted to preserve their own faith and many of their traditional values. They were concerned that if Jews lost their identification, the result would be detrimental. Those in favor of cultural synthesis desired a balance between change and continuity as opposed to the assimilationists who only wanted change.[13]
In 1975, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution that designated Zionism as "a form of racism and racial discrimination". The resolution was repealed in 1991. Within the context of the Arab–Israeli conflict, Zionism is viewed by critics as a system that fosters apartheid and racism.[14]
Terminology
The term "Zionism" itself is derived from the word Zion (Hebrew: ציון, Tzi-yon), referring to Jerusalem. Throughout eastern Europe at the time, there were numerous grassroots groups promoting the national resettlement of the Jews in what was termed their "ancestral homeland", as well as the revitalization and cultivation of Hebrew. These groups were collectively called the "Lovers of Zion." The first use of the term is attributed to the Austrian Nathan Birnbaum, founder of a nationalist Jewish students' movement Kadimah, who used the term in his journal Selbstemanzipation (Self Emancipation) .[15] Readings of the founders of Zionism shows that they lived in the same Europe which spawned fascism and Naziism, and they adopted the anti-Jewish view that Jews did not belong in Europe as the core of their ideology.[16]
Organization
| Revisionist Zionism movement, which was not represented.[17] | ||
| Country/Region | Members | Delegates |
|---|---|---|
| Poland | 299,165 | 109 |
| USA | 263,741 | 114 |
| Palestine | 167,562 | 134 |
| Romania | 60,013 | 28 |
| United Kingdom | 23,513 | 15 |
| South Africa | 22,343 | 14 |
| Canada | 15,220 | 8 |
The multi-national, worldwide Zionist movement is structured on representative democratic principles. Congresses are held every four years (they were held every two years before the Second World War) and delegates to the congress are elected by the membership. Members are required to pay dues known as a shekel. At the congress, delegates elect a 30-man executive council, which in turn elects the movement's leader. The movement was democratic from its inception and women had the right to vote.
Until 1917, the World Zionist Organization pursued a strategy of building a Jewish National Home through persistent small-scale immigration and the founding of such bodies as the Jewish National Fund (1901 — a charity that bought land for Jewish settlement) and the Anglo-Palestine Bank (1903 — provided loans for Jewish businesses and farmers). In 1942, at the Biltmore Conference, the movement included for the first time an express objective of the establishment of a Jewish state in the Land of Israel.
The 28th Zionist Congress, meeting in Jerusalem in 1968, adopted the five points of the "Jerusalem Program" as the aims of Zionism today. They are:[18]
- Unity of the Jewish People and the centrality of Israel in Jewish life
- Ingathering of the Jewish People in its historic homeland, Eretz Israel, through Aliyah from all countries
- Strengthening of the State of Israel, based on the prophetic vision of justice and peace
- Preservation of the identity of the Jewish People through fostering of Jewish and Hebrew education, and of Jewish spiritual and cultural values
- Protection of Jewish rights everywhere
Since the creation of modern Israel, the role of the movement has declined and it is now a peripheral factor in Israeli politics, though different perceptions of Zionism continue to play a role in Israeli and Jewish political discussion.
Labor Zionism
Labor Zionism originated in Eastern Europe. Socialist Zionists believed that centuries of oppression in antisemitic societies had reduced Jews to a meek, vulnerable, despairing existence that invited further antisemitism, a view originally stipulated by Theodor Herzl. They argued that a revolution of the Jewish soul and society was necessary and achievable in part by Jews moving to Israel and becoming farmers, workers, and soldiers in a country of their own. Most socialist Zionists rejected the observance of traditional religious Judaism as perpetuating a "Diaspora mentality" among the Jewish people, and established rural communes in Israel called "kibbutzim". The kibbutz began as a variation on a "national farm" scheme, a form of cooperative agriculture where the Jewish National Fund hired Jewish workers under trained supervision. The kibbutzim were a symbol of the Second Aliya in that they put great emphasis on communalism and egalitarianism, representing to a certain extent Utopian socialism. Furthermore, they stressed self-sufficiency, which became an important aspect of Labor Zionism. Though socialist Zionism draws its inspiration and is philosophically founded on the fundamental values and spirituality of Judaism, its progressive expression of that Judaism has often fostered an antagonistic relationship with Orthodox Judaism.
Labor Zionism became the dominant force in the political and economic life of the Yishuv during the British Mandate of Palestine and was the dominant ideology of the political establishment in Israel until the 1977 election when the Israeli Labor Party was defeated. The Israeli Labor Party continues the tradition, although the most popular party in the kibbutzim is Meretz.[citation needed] Labor Zionism's main institution is the Histadrut, which began by providing strikebreakers against a Palestinian worker's strike in 1920 and is now the largest employer in Israel after the Israeli government.
Liberal Zionism
General Zionism (or Liberal Zionism) was initially the dominant trend within the Zionist movement from the First Zionist Congress in 1897 until after the First World War. General Zionists identified with the liberal European middle class to which many Zionist leaders such as Herzl and Chaim Weizmann aspired. Liberal Zionism, although not associated with any single party in modern Israel, remains a strong trend in Israeli politics advocating free market principles, democracy and adherence to human rights. Kadima, however, does identify with many of the fundamental policies of Liberal Zionist ideology, advocating among other things the need for Palestinian statehood in order to form a more democratic society in Israel, affirming the free market, and calling for equal rights for Arab citizens of Israel.
Nationalist Zionism
Nationalist Zionism originated from the Revisionist Zionists led by Jabotinsky. The Revisionists left the World Zionist Organization in 1935 because it refused to state that the creation of a Jewish state was an objective of Zionism. The revisionists advocated the formation of a Jewish Army in Palestine to force the Arab population to accept mass Jewish migration. Revisionist Zionism evolved into the Likud Party in Israel, which has dominated most governments since 1977. It advocates that Israel maintain control of the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and takes a hard-line approach in the Israeli-Arab conflict. In 2005 the Likud split over the issue of creation of a Palestinian state on the occupied territories, and party members advocating peace talks helped form the Kadima party.
Religious Zionism
In the 1920s and 1930s Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook (the first Chief Rabbi of Palestine) and his son Rabbi Zevi Judah Kook saw great religious and traditional value in many of Zionism's ideals, while rejecting its anti-religious undertones. They taught that Orthodox (Torah) Judaism embraces and mandates Zionism's positive ideals, such as the ingathering of exiles, and political activity to create and maintain a Jewish political entity in the Land of Israel. In this way, Zionism serves as a bridge between Orthodox and secular Jews.
While other Zionist groups tended to moderate their nationalism over time, the gains from the Six-Day War have led religious Zionism to play a significant role in Israeli political life. Now associated with the National Religious Party and Gush Emunim, religious Zionists have been at the forefront of Jewish settlement in the West Bank and efforts to assert Jewish control over the Old City of Jerusalem.
Green Zionism
Green Zionism is a branch of Zionism primarily concerned with the environment of Israel. The only environmental Zionist party is the Green Zionist Alliance.
Neo-Zionism and Post-Zionism
During the last quarter of the 20th century, classic nationalism in Israel declined. This led to the rise of two antagonistic movements: neo-Zionism and post-Zionism. Both movements mark the Israeli version of a worldwide phenomenon:
- Emergence of globalization, a market society and liberal culture
- Local backlash[19]
Neo-Zionism and post-Zionism share traits with "classical" Zionism but differ by accentuating antagonist and diametrically opposed poles already present in Zionism. "Neo Zionism accentuates the messianic and particularistic dimensions of Zionist nationalism, while post-Zionism accentuates its normalising and universalistic dimensions".[20] Post-Zionism asserts that Israel should abandon the concept of a "state of the Jewish people" and strive to be a state of all its citizens,[21] or a binational state where Arabs and Jews live together while enjoying some type of autonomy.
Zionism and Haredi Judaism
Most Haredi Orthodox organizations do not belong to the Zionist movement; they view Zionism as secular, reject nationalism as a doctrine and consider Judaism to be first and foremost a religion. However, some Haredi movements such as Shas do openly affiliate with the Zionist movement.
Haredi rabbis do not consider Israel to be a halachic Jewish state because it is secular. However, they generally consider themselves responsible for ensuring that Jews maintain religious ideals and since most Israeli citizens are Jews they pursue this agenda within Israel. Others reject any possibility of a Jewish state, since according to them a Jewish state is completely forbidden by Jewish law, and a Jewish state is considered an oxymoron.
Two Haredi parties run in Israeli elections. They are sometimes associated with views that could be regarded as nationalist or Zionist, and have shown a preference for coalitions with more nationalist Zionist parties, probably because these are more interested in enhancing the Jewish nature of the Israeli state.
The Sephardi-Orthodox party Shas rejected association with the Zionist movement, however in 2010 it joined the World Zionist Organization, its voters also generally regard themselves as Zionist and Knesset members frequently pursue what others might consider a Zionist agenda. Shas has supported territorial compromise with the Arabs and Palestinians but generally opposes compromise over Jewish holy sites.
The non-Hasidic or 'Lithuanian' Haredi Ashkenazi world is represented by the Ashkenazi Agudat Israel/UTJ party has always avoided association with the Zionist movement and usually avoids voting on or discussing issues related to peace because its members do not serve in the army. The party does work towards ensuring that Israel and Israeli law are in tune with the halacha, on issues such as Shabbat rest. The rabbinical leaders of the so-called Litvishe world in current and past generations, such as Rabbi Elazar Menachem Shach and Rabbi Avigdor Miller, are strongly opposed to all forms of Zionism, religious and secular, but allow for slight cooperation in the form of participating in Israeli political life, including both passive and active participation in elections.
Many other Hasidic groups, most famously the Satmar Hasidim as well as the larger movement they are part of in Jerusalem, the Edah HaChareidis, are strongly anti-Zionist. One of the best known Hasidic opponent of all forms of modern political Zionism was Hungarian rebbe and Talmudic scholar Joel Teitelbaum. In his view, the current State of Israel, which was founded by people that included some anti-religious personalities in seeming violation of the traditional notion that Jews should wait for the Jewish Messiah, is seen as contrary to Judaism. The core citations from classical Judaic sources cited by Teitelbaum in his arguments against modern Zionism are based on a passage in the Talmud, Rabbi Yosi b'Rebbi Hanina explains (Kesubos 111a) that the Lord imposed "Three Oaths" on the nation of Israel: a) Israel should not return to the Land together, by force; b) Israel should not rebel against the other nations; and c) The nations should not subjugate Israel too harshly. According to Teitelbaum, the second oath is relevant concerning the subsequent wars fought between Israel and Arab nations.
Other opponent groups included in the Edah HaChareidis include Dushinsky, Toldos Aharon, Toldos Avrohom Yitzchok, Spinka, and others, numbering tens of thousands in Jerusalem, and hundreds of thousands worldwide.
The Neturei Karta, an orthodox Haredi religious movement, strongly oppose Zionism and Israel; it considers the latter a racist regime.[22] The movement equates Zionism to Nazism, stating "Apart from the Zionists, the only ones who consistently considered the Jews a race were the Nazis."[23] Naturei Carta believes that Zionist ideology is totally contrary to traditional Jewish law and beliefs and the teachings of the Holy Torah[24] and that Zionism promotes antisemitism.[25]
The Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement has traditionally not identified itself as Zionist, although in recent years it has adopted a nationalist agenda and opposed any territorial compromise.
Particularities of Zionist beliefs
Zionism was established with the goal of creating a Jewish state. Though later Zionist leaders hoped to create a Jewish state in Eretz Yisrael, Theodor Herzl "approached Great Britain about possible Jewish settlement in that country's East African colonies."[26] Aliyah (migration, literally "ascent") to the Land of Israel is a recurring theme in Jewish prayers. Some Zionists consider Jews outside of Israel as living in exile.[27] Rejection of life in the Diaspora is a central assumption in Zionism.[28] Underlying this attitude is the feeling that the Diaspora restricts the full growth of Jewish individual and national life.
Zionists generally preferred to speak Hebrew, a Semitic language that developed under conditions of freedom in ancient Judah, modernizing and adapting it for everyday use. Zionists sometimes refused to speak Yiddish, a language they considered affected by Christian persecution. Once they moved to Israel, many Zionists refused to speak their (diasporic) mother tongues and gave themselves new, Hebrew names. Hebrew was preferred not only for ideological reasons, but also because it allowed members of the new Yishuv who came from different parts of the world to have a common language, thus furthering the political and cultural bonds between Zionists.
Major aspects of the Zionist idea are represented in the Israeli Declaration of Independence:
The Land of Israel was the birthplace of the Jewish people. Here their spiritual, religious and political identity was shaped. Here they first attained to statehood, created cultural values of national and universal significance and gave to the world the eternal Book of Books.After being forcibly exiled from their land, the people kept faith with it throughout their Dispersion and never ceased to pray and hope for their return to it and for the restoration in it of their political freedom.
Impelled by this historic and traditional attachment, Jews strove in every successive generation to re-establish themselves in their ancient homeland. In recent decades they returned in their masses.[29]
Zionism is dedicated to fighting antisemitism. Some Zionists believe antisemitism will never disappear (and that Jews must conduct themselves with this in mind),[30] while others perceive Zionism as a vehicle with which to end antisemitism.
History
| [31] | |||||
| year | Muslims | Jews | Christians | Others | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1922 | 486,177 (74.91%) | 83,790 (12.91%) | 71,464 (11.01%) | 7,617 (1.17%) | 649,048 |
| 1931 | 493,147 (64.32%) | 174,606 (22.77%) | 88,907 (11.60%) | 10,101 (1.32%) | 766,761 |
| 1941 | 906,551 (59.68%) | 474,102 (31.21%) | 125,413 (8.26%) | 12,881 (0.85%) | 1,518,947 |
| 1946 | 1,076,783 (58.34%) | 608,225 (32.96%) | 145,063 (7.86%) | 15,488 (0.84%) | 1,845,559 |
| 1950 | 116,100 | 1,203,000 |
Since the first centuries CE most Jews have lived outside Land of Israel (Eretz Israel, better known as Palestine by non-Jews), although there has been a constant presence of Jews. According to Judaism, Eretz Israel is a land promised to the Jews by God according to the Bible. The Diaspora began in 586 BCE during the Babylonian occupation of Israel. The Babylonians destroyed the First Temple, which was central to Jewish culture at the time. After the 1st century Great Revolt and the 2nd century Bar Kokhba revolt, the Romans expelled the Jews from Judea, changing the name to Syria Palaestina. The Bar Kokhba revolt caused a spike in anti-Semitism and Jewish persecution. The ensuing exile from Judea greatly increased the percent of Jews who were dispersed throughout the Diaspora instead of living in their original home.
Zion is a hill near Jerusalem (now in the city), widely symbolizing the Land of Israel.
In the middle of the sixteenth century Joseph Nasi, with the support of the Ottoman Empire, tried to gather the Portuguese Jews, first to Cyprus, then owned by the Republic of Venice and later to Tiberias. This was the only practical attempt to establish some sort of Jewish political center in Palestine between the fourth and 19th centuries.[32] In the seventeenth century Sabbatai Zebi (1626–1676) announced himself as the Messias and gained over many Jews to his side, forming a base in Salonica. He first tried to establish a settlement in Gaza, but moved later to Smyrna. After deposing the old rabbi Aaron Lapapa even the Jewish community of Avignon prepared to emigrate to the new kingdom in the spring of 1666. The readiness of the Jews of the time to believe the messianic claims of Sabbatai Zevi may be largely explained by the desperate state of European Jewry in the mid-17th century. The bloody pogroms of Bohdan Khmelnytsky had wiped out one third of the Jewish population and destroyed many centers of Jewish learning and communal life. Finally, he was forced by the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed IV to visit him and, to the surprise of his followers, in the presence of the Sultan he converted to Islam.[33][34]
In the 19th century, a current in Judaism supporting a return to Zion grew in popularity,[35] particularly in Europe, where antisemitism and hostility towards Jews were also growing, although this idea was rejected by the conferences of rabbis held in that epoch. Nonetheless, individual efforts supported the emigration of groups of Jews to Palestine, pre-Zionist Aliyah, even before 1897, the year considered as the start of practical Zionism.[36]
The Reformed Jews rejected this idea of a return to Zion. The conference of rabbis, at Frankfurt am Main, July 15–28, 1845, deleted from the ritual all prayers for a return to Zion and a restoration of a Jewish state. The Philadelphia conference, 1869, followed the lead of the German rabbis and decreed that the Messianic hope of Israel is "the union of all the children of God in the confession of the unity of God". The Pittsburg conference, 1885, reiterated this Messianic idea of reformed Judaism, expressing in a resolution that "we consider ourselves no longer a nation, but a religious community; and we therefore expect neither a return to Palestine, nor a sacrificial worship under the sons of Aaron, nor the restoration of any of the laws concerning a Jewish state".[37]
Jewish settlements were established in the upper Mississippi region by W.D. Robinson in 1819 and near Jerusalem, by the American Consul Warder Cresson, a convert to Judaism, in 1850. Before he succeeded, he was tried and condemned for lunacy in a suit brought forward by his own wife and son; after winning a second trial he established a colony in the Valley of Rephaim, where he hoped to "prevent any attempts being made to take advantage of the necessities of our poor brethren ... (that would) ... FORCE them into a pretended conversion."[38] Similar efforts were made in Prague, by Abraham Benisch and Moritz Steinschneider in 1835.
Sir Moses Montefiore, famous for his intervention in favor of Jews around the world, including the attempt to rescue Edgardo Mortara, established a colony for Jews in Palestine. In 1854, his friend Judah Touro bequeathed money to fund Jewish residential settlement in Palestine. Montefiore was appointed executor of his will, and used the funds for a variety of projects, including building in 1860 the first Jewish residential settlement and almshouse outside of the old walled city of Jerusalem — today known as Mishkenot Sha'ananim. Laurence Oliphant failed in a like attempt to bring to Palestine the Jewish proletariat of Poland, Lithuania, Romania, and the Turkish Empire (1879 and 1882). The official beginning of the construction of the New Yishuv in Palestine is usually dated back to the arrival of the Bilu group in 1882, which commenced the First Aliyah. In the following years, Jewish immigration to Palestine started in earnest. Most immigrants came from Russia, escaping the frequent pogroms and state-led persecution. They founded a number of agricultural settlements with financial support from Jewish philanthropists in Western Europe. Further Aliyahs followed the Russian Revolution and Nazi persecution. However, at the end of the XIX century, Jews still were a minority in Palestina.
In the 1890s, Theodor Herzl infused Zionism with a new ideology and practical urgency, leading to the First Zionist Congress at Basel in 1897, which created the World Zionist Organization (WZO).[39] Herzl's aim was to initiate necessary preparatory steps for the attainment of a Jewish state. Herzl's attempts to reach a political agreement with the Ottoman rulers of Palestine were unsuccessful and other governmental support was sought. The WZO supported small-scale settlement in Palestine and focused on strengthening Jewish feeling and consciousness and on building a worldwide federation.
The Russian Empire, with its long record of state organized genocide and ethnic cleansing ("pogroms") was widely regarded as the historic enemy of the Jewish people. As much of its leadership were German speakers, the Zionist movement's headquarters were located in Berlin. At the start of World War I, most Jews (and Zionists) supported Germany in its war with Russia.
Lobbying by a Russian Jewish immigrant, Chaim Weizmann and fear that American Jews would encourage the USA to support Germany culminated in the Balfour Declaration of 1917 by the British government (the Zionist congress had decided already by 1903 to decline an offer by the British to establish a homeland in Uganda). This endorsed the creation of a Jewish Homeland in Palestine. In addition, a Zionist military corps led by Jabotinsky were recruited to fight on behalf of Britain in Palestine.
In 1922, the League of Nations adopted the declaration in the Mandate it gave to Britain:
The Mandatory (…) will secure the establishment of the Jewish national home, as laid down in the preamble, and the development of self-governing institutions, and also for safeguarding the civil and religious rights of all the inhabitants of Palestine, irrespective of race and religion.—[40]
Weizmann's role in obtaining the Balfour Declaration led to his election as the movement's leader. He remained in that role until 1948 and then became the first President of Israel.
Jewish migration to Palestine and widespread Jewish land purchases from feudal landlords led to landlessness and fueled unrest — often led by the same landlords who sold the land. There were riots in 1920, 1921 and 1929, sometimes accompanied by massacres of Jews[41] The victims were usually from the non-Zionist Haredi Jewish communities in the Four Holy Cities. Britain supported Jewish immigration in principle, but in reaction to Arab violence imposed restrictions.
In 1933, Hitler came to power in Germany, and in 1935 the Nuremberg Laws made German Jews (and later Austrian and Czech Jews) stateless refugees. Similar rules were applied by the many Nazi allies in Europe. The subsequent growth in Jewish migration and impact of Nazi propaganda aimed at the Arab world led to the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine. Britain established the Peel Commission to investigate the situation. The commission did not consider the situation of Jews in Europe, but called for a two-state solution and compulsory transfer of populations. Britain rejected this solution and instead implemented White Paper of 1939. This planned to end Jewish immigration by 1944 and to allow no more than 75,000 further Jewish migrants. This was disastrous to European Jews already being gravely discriminated against and in need of a place to seek refuge. The British maintained this policy until the end of the Mandate.
Growth of the Jewish community in Palestine and devastation of European Jewish life sidelined the World Zionist Organization. The Jewish Agency for Palestine under the leadership of David Ben-Gurion increasingly dictated policy with support from American Zionists who provided funding and influence in Washington, D.C., including via the highly effective American Palestine Committee.
After World War II and the Holocaust, a massive wave of stateless Jews, mainly Holocaust survivors, began migrating to Palestine in small boats in defiance of British rules. The Holocaust united much of the rest of world Jewry behind the Zionist project.[42] The British either imprisoned these Jews in Cyprus (including many orphaned children) or sent them to the British-controlled Allied Occupation Zones in Germany. This resulted in universal Jewish support for Zionism and the refusal of the U.S. Congress to grant economic aid to Britain. In addition, Zionist groups attacked the British in Palestine and, with its empire facing bankruptcy, Britain was forced to refer the issue to the newly created United Nations.
In 1947, the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP) recommended that western Palestine should be partitioned into a Jewish state, an Arab state and a UN-controlled territory, Corpus separatum, around Jerusalem.[43] This partition plan was adopted on November 29, 1947 with UN GA Resolution 181, 33 votes in favor, 13 against, and 10 abstentions. The vote led to celebrations in the streets of Jewish cities.[44] However, the Palestinian Arabs and the Arab states rejected the UN decision, demanding a single state and removal of Jewish migrants, leading to the 1948 Arab–Israeli War.
On May 14, 1948, at the end of the British mandate, the Jewish Agency, led by David Ben-Gurion, declared the creation of the State of Israel, and the same day the armies of seven Arab countries invaded Israel. The conflict led to an exodus of about 711,000 Arab Palestinians,[45] known to Palestinians as Al Nakba (the "catastrophe"), and the exodus of 850,000 Jews from the Arab world, mostly to Israel. Later, a series of laws passed by the first Israeli government prevented Palestinians from returning to their homes, or claiming their property. They and many of their descendants remain refugees.[46][47] The expulsion of the Palestinians has since been widely, and controversially, described as having involved "ethnic cleansing".[48][49]
Since the creation of the State of Israel, the World Zionist Organization has functioned mainly as an organization dedicated to assisting and encouraging Jews to migrate to Israel. It has provided political support for Israel in other countries but plays little role in internal Israeli politics. The movement's major success since 1948 was in providing logistical support for migrating Jews and, most importantly, in assisting Soviet Jews in their struggle with the authorities over the right to leave the USSR and to practice their religion in freedom.
Non-Jewish support for Zionism
Political support for the Jewish return to the Land of Israel predates the formal organization of Jewish Zionism as a political movement. In the 19th century, advocates of the Restoration of the Jews to the Holy Land were called Restorationists. The return of the Jews to the Holy Land was widely supported by such eminent figures as Queen Victoria, Napoleon Bonaparte,[50] King Edward VII, President John Adams of the United States, General Smuts of South Africa, President Masaryk of Czechoslovakia, philosopher and historian Benedetto Croce from Italy, Henry Dunant (founder of the Red Cross and author of the Geneva Conventions), and scientist and humanitarian Fridtjof Nansen from Norway.
The French government through Minister M. Cambon formally committed itself to "... the renaissance of the Jewish nationality in that Land from which the people of Israel were exiled so many centuries ago."
In China, top figures of the Nationalist government, including Sun Yat-sen, expressed their sympathy with the aspirations of the Jewish people for a National Home.[51]
Christians supporting Zionism
Some Christians have actively supported the return of Jews to Palestine even prior to Zionism, as well as subsequently. One of the principal Protestant teachers who promoted the biblical doctrine that the Jews would return to their national homeland was John Nelson Darby. He is credited with being the major promoter of the idea following his 11 lectures on the hopes of the church, the Jew and the gentile given in Geneva in 1840. His views were embraced by many evangelicals and also affected international foreign policy. Notable early supporters of Zionism include British Prime Ministers David Lloyd George and Arthur Balfour, American President Woodrow Wilson and British Major-General Orde Wingate, whose activities in support of Zionism led the British Army to ban him from ever serving in Palestine. According to Charles Merkley of Carleton University, Christian Zionism strengthened significantly after the Six-Day War of 1967, and many dispensationalist Christians, especially in the United States, now strongly support Zionism.
The founder of Latter Day Saint movement, Joseph Smith, Jr., in his last years alive, declared "the time for Jews to return to the land of Israel is now." In 1842, Smith sent Orson Hyde, an Apostle of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, to Jerusalem to dedicate the land for the return of the Jews.[52]
Some Arab Christians publicly supporting Israel include US author Nonie Darwish, and former Muslim Magdi Allam, author of Viva Israele,[53] both born in Egypt. Brigitte Gabriel, a Lebanese-born Christian US journalist and founder of the American Congress for Truth, urges Americans to "fearlessly speak out in defense of America, Israel and Western civilization".[54]
Muslims supporting Zionism
In 1873, Shah of Persia Naser al-Din Shah Qajar met with British Jewish leaders, including Sir Moses Montefiore, during his journey to Europe. At that time, the Persian king suggested that the Jews buy land and establish a state for the Jewish people.[55]
Muslims who publicly defended Zionism include Dr. Tawfik Hamid, former member of a terror organization and current Islamic thinker and reformer,[56] Sheikh Prof. Abdul Hadi Palazzi, Director of the Cultural Institute of the Italian Islamic Community,[57] and Tashbih Sayyed, a Pakistani-American scholar, journalist, and author.[58]
On occasion, some non-Arab Muslims such as some Kurds and Berbers have also voiced support for Zionism.[59][60][61]
During the Palestine Mandate era, As'ad Shukeiri, a Muslim scholar ('alim) of the Acre area, and the father of PLO founder Ahmad Shukeiri, rejected the values of the Palestinian Arab national movement and was opposed to the anti-Zionist movement.[62] He met routinely with Zionist officials and had a part in every pro-Zionist Arab organization from the beginning of the British Mandate, publicly rejecting Mohammad Amin al-Husayni's use of Islam to attack Zionism.[63]
Some Indian Muslims have also expressed opposition to Islamic anti-Zionism. In August 2007, a delegation of the All India Organization of Imams and mosques led by Maulana Jamil Ilyas visited Israel. The meet led to a joint statement expressing "peace and goodwill from Indian Muslims", developing dialogue between Indian Muslims and Israeli Jews, and rejecting the perception that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is of a religious nature.[64] The visit was organized by the American Jewish Committee. The purpose of the visit was to create meaningful debate about the status of Israel in the Muslim eyes worldwide, and strengthen the relationship between India and Israel. It is suggested that the visit could "open Muslim minds across the world to understand the democratic nature of the state of Israel, especially in the Middle East".[65]
Hindu support for Zionism
After Israel's creation in 1948, the Indian National Congress government opposed Zionism. Some writers have claimed that this was in order to get more Muslim votes in India (where Muslims numbered over 30 million at the time).[66] However, conservative Hindu nationalists, led by the Sangh Parivar, openly supported Zionism, as did Hindu Nationalist intellectuals like Vinayak Damodar Savarkar and Sita Ram Goel.[67] Zionism as a national liberation movement to repatriate the Jewish people to their ancestral homeland appealed to many Hindu Nationalists, who viewed their struggle for independence from British rule and the Partition of India as national liberation for long-oppressed Hindus.
An international opinion survey has shown that India is the most pro-Israel country in the world.[68][69][70][71] In more current times, conservative Indian parties and organizations tend to support Zionism.[67][72] This has invited attacks on the Hindutva movement by parts of the Indian left opposed to Zionism, and allegations that Hindus are conspiring with the "Jewish Lobby."[73]
Marcus Garvey and Black Zionism
Zionist success in winning British support for formation of a Jewish National Home in Palestine helped to inspire the Jamaican nationalist Marcus Garvey to form a movement dedicated to returning Americans of African origin to Africa. During a speech in Harlem in 1920, Garvey stated: "other races were engaged in seeing their cause through — the Jews through their Zionist movement and the Irish through their Irish movement — and I decided that, cost what it might, I would make this a favorable time to see the Negro's interest through."[74] Garvey established a shipping company, the Black Star Line, to allow Black Americans to emigrate to Africa, but for various reasons failed in his endeavour.
Garvey helped inspire the Rastafari movement in Jamaica, the Black Jews[75] and the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem who initially moved to Liberia before settling in Israel.
Opposition to Zionism
Zionism is opposed by a wide variety of organizations and individuals. Among those opposing Zionism are some secular Jews,[76] some branches of Judaism (Satmar Hasidim and Neturei Karta), the former Soviet Union,[77] some African-Americans,[78] many in the Muslim world, and Palestinians. Reasons for opposing Zionism are varied, and include the perceptions of unfair land confiscation, expulsions of Palestinians, violence against Palestinians, and alleged racism. Arab states in particular strongly oppose Zionism, which they believe is responsible for the 1948 Palestinian exodus.
Zionism had also been opposed by some Jews for other reasons even before the establishment of the state of Israel because "Zionism constitutes a danger, spiritual and physical, to the existence of our people.'.".[79] The book also states "The booklet which we are publishing here, 'Serufay. Ha Kivshbnim Maashimim' ('The Holocaust Victims Accuse'), serves as an attempt to show, by means of testimonies., documents and reports, how Zionism and its high-level organizations brought a catastrophe upon our people during the era of the Nazi holocaust."
Catholic Church and Zionism
The initial response of the Catholic Church seemed to be one of strong opposition to Zionism. Shortly after the 1897 Basle Conference, the semi-official Vatican periodical (edited by the Jesuits) Civilta Cattolica gave its biblical-theological judgement on political Zionism: "1827 years have passed since the prediction of Jesus of Nazareth was fulfilled ... that [after the destruction of Jerusalem] the Jews would be led away to be slaves among all the nations and that they would remain in the dispersion [diaspora, galut] until the end of the world." The Jews should not be permitted to return to Palestine with sovereignty: "According to the Sacred Scriptures, the Jewish people must always live dispersed and vagabondo [vagrant, wandering] among the other nations, so that they may render witness to Christ not only by the Scriptures ... but by their very existence".
Nonetheless, Theodore Herzl travelled to Rome in late January 1904, after the sixth Zionist Congress (August, 1903) and six months before his death, looking for some kind of support. In January 22, Herzl first met the Secretary of State, Cardinal Rafael Merry del Val. According to Herzl's private diary notes, the Cardinal agreed on the history of Israel being the same as the one of the Catholic Church, but asked beforehand for a conversion of Jews to Catholicism. Three days later, Herzl met Pope Pius X, who replied to his request of support for a Jewish return to Israel in the same terms, saying that "we are unable to favor this movement. We cannot prevent the Jews going to Jerusalem, but we could never sanction it ... The Jews have not recognized our Lord, therefore we cannot recognize the Jewish people." In 1922 the same recourse of preordained divine judgment in the Bible was utilized by the same periodical to oppose Zionism, alleging that the rejection and killing of Jesus by the Jews condemned them in the eyes of Catholics.[citation needed] This initial attitude changed over the next 50 years, until 1997, when at the Vatican symposium of that year, Pope John Paul II rejected the Christian roots of anti-Semitism, expressing that "... the wrong and unjust interpretations of the New Testament relating to the Jewish people and their supposed guilt [in Christ's death] circulated for too long, engendering sentiments of hostility toward this people."[80]
Characterization as colonialism
Zionism has been characterized as colonialism, and Zionism has been criticized for promoting unfair confiscation of land, involving expulsion of indigenous peoples, and causing violence towards Palestinians. The characterization of Zionism as colonialism has been described by, among others, Nur Masalha, Gershon Shafir, Michael Prior, Ilan Pappe, and Baruch Kimmerling.[2]
Others, such as Shlomo Avineri and Mitchell Bard, view Zionism not as colonialist movement, but as a national movement that is contending with the Palestinian one.[81] David Hoffman rejected the claim that Zionism is a 'settler-colonial undertaking' and instead characterized Zionism as a national program of affirmative action, adding that there is unbroken Jewish presence in Israel back to antiquity.[82]
Noam Chomsky, John P. Quigly, Nur Masalha, and Cheryl Rubenberg have criticised Zionism, saying it unfairly confiscates land and expels Palestinians.[83]
Edward Said and Michael Prior claim that the notion of expelling the indigenous population was an early component of Zionism, citing Herzl's diary from 1895 which states "we shall endeavour to expel the poor population across the border unnoticed — the process of expropriation and the removal of the poor must be carried out discreetly and circumspectly."[84] Derek Penslar says that Herzl may have been considering either South America or Palestine when he wrote the diary entry about expropriation.[85]
Ilan Pappe argued that Zionism results in ethnic cleansing.[86] This view diverges from other New Historians, such as Benny Morris, who accept the Palestinian exodus narrative but place it in the context of war, not ethnic cleansing.[87]
Saleh Abdel Jawad, Nur Masalha, Michael Prior, Ian Lustick, and John Rose have criticised Zionism for having been responsible for violence against Palestinians, such as the Deir Yassin massacre, Sabra and Shatila massacre, and Cave of the Patriarchs massacre.[88]
In 1938, Mahatma Gandhi rejected Zionism, saying that the establishment of a Jewish national home in Palestine is a religious act and therefore must not be performed by force. He wrote, "Palestine belongs to the Arabs in the same sense that England belongs to the English or France to the French. It is wrong and inhuman to impose the Jews on the Arabs ... Surely it would be a crime against humanity to reduce the proud Arabs so that Palestine can be restored to the Jews partly or wholly as their national home ... They can settle in Palestine only by the goodwill of the Arabs. They should seek to convert the Arab heart."[89]
Characterization as racist
Critics of Zionism consider it a colonialist[2] or racist[3] movement. Some scholars consider certain forms of opposition to Zionism to constitute Antisemitism.[6][90] According to new historian Avi Shlaim, throughout its history up to present day, Zionism "is replete with manifestations of deep hostility and contempt towards the indigenous population." Shlaim balances this by pointing out that there have always been individuals within the Zionist movement that have criticized such attitudes. He cites the example of Ahad Ha'am, who after visiting Palestine in 1891, published a series of articles criticizing the aggressive behaviour and political ethnocentrism of Zionist settlers. Ha'am wrote that the Zionists "behave towards the Arabs with hostility and cruelty, trespass unjustly upon their boundaries, beat them shamefully without reason and even brag about it, and nobody stands to check this contemptible and dangerous tendency" and that they believed that "the only language that the Arabs understand is that of force."[91]
Some critics of Zionism describe it as racist or discriminatory.[3] Some criticisms of Zionism specifically identify Judaism's notion of the "chosen people" as the source of racism in Zionism,[92] despite that being a religious concept unrelated to Zionism.[citation needed]
In December 1973, the UN passed a series of resolutions condemning South Africa and included a reference to an "unholy alliance between Portuguese colonialism, Apartheid and Zionism."[93] At the time there was little cooperation between Israel and South Africa,[94] although the two countries would develop a close relationship during the 1970s.[95] Parallels have also been drawn between aspects of South Africa's apartheid regime and certain Israeli policies toward the Palestinians, which are seen as manifestations of racism in Zionist thinking.[96][97][98]
In 1975 the UN General Assembly passed Resolution 3379, which said "Zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination". According to the resolution, "any doctrine of racial differentiation of superiority is scientifically false, morally condemnable, socially unjust, and dangerous." The resolution named the occupied territory of Palestine, Zimbabwe, and South Africa as examples of racist regimes. Resolution 3379 was pioneered by the Soviet Union and passed with numerical support from Arab and African states amidst accusations that Israel was supportive of the apartheid regime in South Africa.[99] In 1991 the resolution was repealed with UN General Assembly Resolution 46/86,[100] after Israel declared that it would only participate in the Madrid Conference of 1991 if the resolution were revoked.[101]
Arab countries sought to associate Zionism with racism in connection with a 2001 UN conference on racism, which took place in Durban, South Africa,[102] which caused the United States and Israel to walk away from the conference as a response. The final text of the conference did not connect Zionism with racism. A human rights forum arranged in connection with the conference, on the other hand, did equate Zionism with racism and censured Israel for what it called "racist crimes, including acts of genocide and ethnic cleansing".[103]
The African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights was adopted in 1981 by the Organisation of African Unity, which has since evolved into the African Union. The preamble of the charter includes a call to "eliminate colonialism, neo-colonialism, apartheid, zionism and to dismantle aggressive foreign military bases and all forms of discrimination, particularly those based on race, ethnic group, color, sex. language, religion or political opinions".[104] The charter has been ratified by 53 African countries.[105]
Some supporters of Zionism, such as Chaim Herzog, argue that the movement is non-discriminatory and contains no racist aspects.[106]
Anti-Zionism as anti-Semitism
It is argued by some scholars that the opposition to Zionism at the more extreme fringes may be hard to separate from antisemitism.[6]
Anti-semites have alleged that Zionism was, or is, part of a Jewish plot to take control of the world.[107] One particular version of these allegations, "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" (subtitle "Protocols extracted from the secret archives of the central chancery of Zion") achieved global notability. The protocols are fictional minutes of an imaginary meeting by Jewish leaders of this plot. Analysis and proof of their fraudulent origin goes as far back as 1921.[108] A 1920 German version renamed them "The Zionist Protocols".[109] The protocols were extensively used as propaganda by the Nazis and remain widely distributed in the Arab world. They are referred to in the 1988 Hamas charter.[110]
There are examples of anti-Zionists using accusations, slanders, imagery and tactics previously associated with anti-semites. On October 21, 1973, then-Soviet ambassador to the United Nations Yakov Malik declared: "The Zionists have come forth with the theory of the Chosen People, an absurd ideology." Similarly, an exhibit about Zionism and Israel in the Museum of Religion and Atheism in Saint Petersburg designates the following as Soviet Zionist material: Jewish prayer shawls, tefillin and Passover Hagaddahs,[111] even though these are all religious items used by Jews for thousands of years.[112]
Noam Chomsky, Norman Finkelstein, Irfan Khawaja, and Tariq Ali have suggested that the characterization of anti-Zionism as anti-Semitic is inaccurate, sometimes obscures legitimate criticism of Israel's policies and actions, and is sometimes a political ploy to stifle criticism of Israel.[113]
See also
Types of Zionism
- Cultural Zionism
- Green Zionism
- Reform Zionism
- Streams of Zionism (Political, Practical & Synthetic Zionism)
Zionist institutions and organizations
- Histadrut
- The Jewish Agency for Israel
- World Zionist Organization
- Jewish National Fund
- Vaad Leumi
- Hanoar Hatzioni
History of Zionism and Israel
- Return to Zion
- Yehud Medinata
- Jewish diaspora
- Jewish people
- The Holocaust
- Gathering of Israel
- Aliyah
- History of Zionism
- History of Israel
- Israeli-Arab conflict
- Israeli–Palestinian conflict
- Israeli settlement
- List of Zionist figures
- Timeline of Zionism
Miscellanea
- American Council for Judaism
- Christian Zionism in the United Kingdom
- Jewish Autonomism
- Jewish emancipation
- Restoration of the Jews to the Holy Land
- Berne Trial
Footnotes
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- ^ a b c
- Shafir, Gershon, Being Israeli: the dynamics of multiple citizenship, Cambridge University Press, 2002, pp 37–38
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- Pappé Ilan, A history of modern Palestine: one land, two peoples, Cambridge University Press, 2006, pp 72–121
- Prior, Michael, The Bible and colonialism: a moral critique, Continuum International Publishing Group, 1997, pp 106–215
- Shafir, Gershon, "Zionism and Colonialism", in The Israel / Palestinian Question, by Ilan Pappe, Psychology Press, 1999, pp 72–85
- Lustick, Ian, For the Land and the Lord …
- Zuriek, Elia, The Palestinians in Israel: A Study in Internal Colonialism, Routledge & K. Paul, 1979
- Penslar, Derek J., "Zionism, Colonialism and Postcolonialism", in Israeli historical revisionism: from left to right, Psychology Press, 2003, pp 85–98
- Pappe, Ilan, The ethnic cleansing of Palestine, Oneworld, 2007
- Masalha, Nur (2007), The Bible and Zionism: invented traditions, archaeology and post-colonialism in Palestine-Israel, 1, Zed Books, p. 16
- Thomas, Baylis (2011), The Dark Side of Zionism: Israel's Quest for Security Through Dominance, Lexington Books, p. 4
- Prior, Michael (1999), Zionism and the state of Israel: a moral inquiry, Psychology Press, p. 240
- ^ a b c
- Zionism, imperialism, and race, Abdul Wahhab Kayyali, ʻAbd al-Wahhāb Kayyālī (Eds), Croom Helm, 1979
- Gerson, Allan, "The United Nations and Racism: the Case of Zionism and Racism", in Israel Yearbook on Human Rights 1987, Volume 17; Volume 1987, Yoram Dinstein, Mala Tabory (Eds), Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1988, p 68
- Hadawi, Sami, Bitter harvest: a modern history of Palestine, Interlink Books, 1991, p 183
- Beker, Avi, Chosen: the history of an idea, the anatomy of an obsession, Macmillan, 2008, p 131, 139, 151
- Dinstein, Yoram, Israel Yearbook on Human Rights 1987, Volume 17; Volume 1987, p 31, 136ge
- Harkabi, Yehoshafat, Arab attitudes to Israel, pp 247–8
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- ^ "Anti-Zionism and Anti-Semitism". Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. Fall 2004. Retrieved Fall 2004.
- ^ a b c Anti-semitism in Germany: the post-Nazi epoch since 1945 By Werner Bergmann, Rainer Erb, page 182, "Continuity and Change: Extreme Right Perceptions of Zionism" by Roni Stauber in Anti-semitism worldwide 1999/2000 Tel Aviv University
- ^ − {{citation − | first=Kenneth L. | last=Marcus − | title=Anti-Zionism as Racism: Campus Anti-Semitism and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 − | journal=William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal − | volume=15 | issue=3 − | pages=837–891 − | year=2007 − }}
- ^ Gideon Shimoni, The Zionist Ideology (1995)
- ^ Aviel Roshwald, "Jewish Identity and the Paradox of Nationalism", in Michael Berkowitz, (ed.). Nationalism, Zionism and Ethnic Mobilization of the Jews in 1900 and Beyond, p. 15).
- ^ Wylen, Stephen M. Settings of Silver: An Introduction to Judaism, Second Edition, Paulist Press, 2000, p. 392).
- ^ Walter Laqueur, The History of Zionism (2003) p 40
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- ^ Tesler, Mark. Jewish History and the Emergence of Modern Political Zionism. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Printing Press, 1994.
- ^ Stefan Goranov, "Racism: A Basic Principle of Zionism" in Zionism and Racism.] Proceedings of an International Symposium. The International Organization for the elimination of all forms of racial discrimination. New Brunswick. North American, 1979. 262p.
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- ^ Hertzberg, Arthur, "The Zionist Idea: A Historical Analysis and Reader," Atheneum (1959)" and Herzl, Thedor, "The Diaries of Theodor Herzl," The Universal Library (1962)."
- ^ Source: A survey of Palestine, prepared in 1946 for the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry, Volume II page 907 HMSO 1946.
- ^ Hagshama.org
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- ^ Can Israel Survive Post-Zionism? by Meyrav Wurmser. Middle East Quarterly, March 1999
- ^ "We oppose the Zionists and their 'state' vigorously and we continue our prayers for the dismantlement of the Zionist 'state' and peace to the world." Rabbi E Weissfish, NETUREI KARTA, Representatives of Orthodox Jewry, US, London, Palestine and worldwide.
- ^ "THE GREAT GULF BETWEEN ZIONISM AND JUDAISM" Paper delivered by G. J. Neuberger a member of Neturei Karta at the Tripoli Conference on Zionism and Racism.]
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- ^ Johnson, Paul (May 1998). "The Miracle". Commentary 105: pp 21–28.
- ^ United Nations Special Committee on Palestine; report to the General Assembly, A/364, September 3, 1947
- ^ Three minutes, 2000 years, Video from the Jewish Agency for Israel, via YouTube
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- ^ http://www.unrwa.org/etemplate.php?id=87
- ^ Ian Black (November 26, 2010). "Memories and maps keep alive Palestinian hopes of return". The Guardian.
- ^ Shavit, Ari. Survival of the Fittest? An Interview with Benny Morris. Logos. Winter 2004
- ^ http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/herzl-hinted-at-napoleon-s-zionist-past-1.120723 Herzl hinted at Napoleon's 'Zionist past'
- ^ Goldstein, Jonathan (1999), "The Republic of China and Israel", in Goldstein, Jonathan, China and Israel, 1948–1998: A Fifty Year Retrospective, Westport, Conn. and London: Praeger, pp. 1–39
- ^ "Orson Hyde and Israel's Restoration". Signaturebookslibrary.org. Retrieved June 3, 2010.
- ^ ISBN 978-88-04-56777-6
- ^ anonymous (unknown). "Mission/Vision". American Congress for Truth. Archived from the original on March 24, 2008. Retrieved April 17, 2008.
- ^ World Jewish Congress
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- ^ Neuwirth, Rachel (June 24, 2007). "Tashbih Sayyed ― A Fearless Muslim Zionist". Islam Watch. Retrieved June 3, 2010.
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- ^ Dialogue of Democracy: Indian Muslims Visit Israel | YaleGlobal Online Magazine
- ^ INDIA — ISRAEL RELATIONS: THE IMPERATIVES FOR ENHANCED STRATEGIC COOPERATION — Subhash Kapila — South Asia Analysis Group
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- ^ BlackJews.org — A Project of the International Board of Rabbis
- ^
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- ^
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- Saleh Abdel Jawad (2007) "Zionist Massacres: the Creation of the Palestinian Refugee Problem in the 1948 War" in Israel and the Palestinian refugees, Eyal Benvenistî, Chaim Gans, Sari Hanafi (Eds.), Springer, p. 78.
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- ^
- Said, Edward, The Edward Said reader, Random House, Inc., 2000, pp 128–129
- Prior, Michael P. Zionism and the state of Israel: a moral inquiry, Psychology Press, 1999, pp 191–192
- Penslar, Derek, Israel in history: the Jewish state in comparative perspective, Taylor & Francis, 2007, p 56.
- ^
- Penslar, Derek, Israel in history: the Jewish state in comparative perspective, Taylor & Francis, 2007, p 56.
- ^
- Pappe, Ilan, The ethnic cleansing of Palestine, Oneworld, 2007
- ^ Rane, Halim. Islam and Contemporary Civilisation. Academic Monographs, 2010. ISBN 978-0-522-85728-3. p. 198
- ^
- Khallidi, Walid, "Plan Dalet: The Zionist Master Plan for the Conquest of Palestine", in Middle East Forum, no. 22, Nov 1961, p 27.
- Weisburd, David, Jewish Settler Violence, Penn State Press, 1985, pp 20–52
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- Saleh Abdel Jawad (2007) "Zionist Massacres: the Creation of the Palestinian Refugee Problem in the 1948 War" in Israel and the Palestinian refugees, Eyal Benvenistî, Chaim Gans, Sari Hanafi (Eds.), Springer, p. 78:
- ".. the Zionist movement, which claims to be secular, found it necessary to embrace the idea of 'the promised land' of Old Testament prophecy, to justify the confiscation of land and the expulsion of the Palestinians. For example, the speeches and letter of Chaim Weizman, the secular Zionist leader, are filled with references to the biblical origins of the Jewish claim to Palestine, which he often mixes liberally with more pragmatic and nationalistic claims. By the use of this premise, embraced in 1937, Zionists alleged that the Palestinians were usurpers in the Promised Land, and therefore their expulsion and death was justified. The Jewish-American writer Dan Kurzman, in his book Genesis 1948 … describes the view of one of the Deir Yassin's killers: 'The Sternists followed the instructions of the Bible more rigidly than others. They honored the passage (Exodus 22:2): 'If a thief be found …' This meant, of course, that killing a thief was not really muder. And were not the enemies of Zionism thieves, who wanted to steal from the Jews what God had granted them?'
- Ehrlich, Carl. S., (1999) "Joshua, Judaism, and Genocide", in Jewish Studies at the Turn of the Twentieth Century, Judit Targarona Borrás, Ángel Sáenz-Badillos (Eds). 1999, Brill. p 117-124.
- Hirst, David, The Gun and the Olive Branch: The Roots of Violence in the Middle East. 1984, p 139.
- Lorch, Netanel, The Edge of the Sword: Israel's War of Independence, 1947–1949, Putnam, 1961, p 87
- Pappe, Ilan, The ethnic cleansing of Palestine, Oneworld, 2007, p 88
- ^ William R. Slomanson. Fundamental Perspectives on International Law. p. 50
- ^ Marcus, Kenneth L. (2007), "Anti-Zionism as Racism: Campus Anti-Semitism and the Civil Rights Act of 1964", William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal 15 (3): 837–891
- ^ shlaim, Avi (9). "It can be done". London Review of Books 16 (11): 26-27. Retrieved 16/10/2012.
- ^
- Korey, William, Russian antisemitism, Pamyat, and the demonology of Zionism, Psychology Press, 1995, pp 33–34
- Beker, Avi, Chosen: the history of an idea, the anatomy of an obsession, Macmillan, 2008, pp 139
- Shimoni, Gideon, Community and conscience: the Jews in apartheid South Africa, UPNE, 2003, p 167
- ^ Resolution 3151 G (XXVIII) of December 14, 1973 by the UN General Assembly
- ^ Israel and Black Africa: A Rapprochement? Ethan A. Nadelmann. Journal of Modern African Studies, Vol. 19, No. 2 (Jun., 1981), pp. 183–219
- ^ Brothers in arms — Israel's secret pact with Pretoria (The Guardian, February 7, 2006)
- ^ UN envoy hits Israel 'apartheid' (BBC, Feb. 23, 2007)
- ^ It's time to rethink Zionism (The Guardian, Feb. 17, 2009)
- ^ Zionism as a Racist Ideology, by Kathleen and Bill Christinson (Counterpunch, November 8 / 9, 2003)
- ^ UN General Assembly Resolution 3379, Racial Discrimination (Council on Foreign Relations, November 10, 1975)
- ^ 260 General Assembly Resolution 46-86- Revocation of Resolution 3379- December 16, 1991 — and statement by President Herzog Dec 16, 1991, VOLUME 11–12: 1988–1992
- ^ Frum, David (2000). How We Got Here: The '70s. New York, New York: Basic Books. p. 320. ISBN 0-465-04195-7.
- ^ Anger over Zionism debate (BBC, Sept. 4, 2001)
- ^ US abandons racism summit(BBC, Sept. 3, 2001)
- ^ African [Banjul] Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, adopted June 27, 1981 (Library of the University of Minnesota)
- ^ List of Countries Who Have Signed, Ratified/Adhered to the African Charter On Human And Peoples' Rights (as of January 7, 2005)
- ^ Israeli Ambassador Chaim Herzog's Response To Zionism Is Racism Resolution. November 10, 1975. "You dare talk of racism when I can point with pride to the Arab ministers who have served in my government; to the Arab deputy speaker of my Parliament; to Arab officers and men serving of their own volition in our border and police defense forces, frequently commanding Jewish troops; to the hundreds of thousands of Arabs from all over the Middle East crowding the cities of Israel every year; to the thousands of Arabs from all over the Middle East coming for medical treatment to Israel; to the peaceful coexistence which has developed; to the fact that Arabic is an official language in Israel on a par with Hebrew; to the fact that it is as natural for an Arab to serve in public office in Israel as it is incongruous to think of a Jew serving in any public office in an Arab country, indeed being admitted to many of them. Is that racism? It is not! That, Mr. President, is Zionism."
- ^ Norman Cohn, Warrant for Genocide, Serif 2001 chapter 3
- ^ A Hoax of Hate
- ^ Norman Cohn, Warrant for Genocide, Serif 2001 page 75-76
- ^ Hamas charter, article 32: "The Zionist plan is limitless. After Palestine, the Zionists aspire to expand from the Nile to the Euphrates. When they will have digested the region they overtook, they will aspire to further expansion, and so on. Their plan is embodied in the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" ..."
- ^ Korey, W., "Updating the Protocols," Midstream, May 1970, p. 17.
- ^ Prager, D; Telushkin, J. Why the Jews?: The Reason for Antisemitism. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1983. page 169-175.
- ^
- Professor Noam Chomsky argues: "There have long been efforts to identify anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism in an effort to exploit anti-racist sentiment for political ends; "one of the chief tasks of any dialogue with the Gentile world is to prove that the distinction between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism is not a distinction at all," Israeli diplomat Abba Eban argued, in a typical expression of this intellectually and morally disreputable position (Eban, Congress Bi-Weekly, March 30, 1973). But that no longer suffices. It is now necessary to identify criticism of Israeli policies as anti-Semitism — or in the case of Jews, as "self-hatred," so that all possible cases are covered." — Chomsky, 1989 "Necessary Illusions".
- American political scientist Norman Finkelstein argues that anti-Zionism and often just criticism of Israeli policies have been conflated with antisemitism, sometimes called new antisemitism for political gain: "Whenever Israel faces a public relations débâcle such as the Intifada or international pressure to resolve the Israel-Palestine conflict, American Jewish organizations orchestrate this extravaganza called the 'new anti-Semitism.' The purpose is several-fold. First, it is to discredit any charges by claiming the person is an anti-Semite. It's to turn Jews into the victims, so that the victims are not the Palestinians any longer. As people like Abraham Foxman of the ADL put it, the Jews are being threatened by a new holocaust. It's a role reversal — the Jews are now the victims, not the Palestinians. So it serves the function of discrediting the people leveling the charge. It's no longer Israel that needs to leave the Occupied Territories; it's the Arabs who need to free themselves of the anti-Semitism. — http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/5104
- Tariq Ali, a British-Pakistani historian and political activist, argues that the concept of new antisemitism amounts to an attempt to subvert the language in the interests of the State of Israel. He writes that the campaign against "the supposed new 'anti-semitism'" in modern Europe is a "cynical ploy on the part of the Israeli Government to seal off the Zionist state from any criticism of its regular and consistent brutality against the Palestinians ... Criticism of Israel can not and should not be equated with anti-semitism." He argues that most pro-Palestinian, anti-Zionist groups that emerged after the Six-Day War were careful to observe the distinction between anti-Zionism and antisemitism. — Ali, Tariq. "Notes on Anti-Semitism, Zionism and Palestine", Counterpunch, March 4, 2004, first published in il manifesto, February 26, 2004.
- Khawaja, Irfan, "Poisoning the Well: The False Equation of Anti-Zionism and Anti-Semitism", History News Network, [1]'
Further reading
- Armborst-Weihs, Kerstin: The Formation of the Jewish National Movement Through Transnational Exchange: Zionism in Europe up to the First World War, European History Online, Mainz: Institute of European History, 2011, retrieved: August 17, 2011.
- Beller, Steven. Herzl (2004)
- Brenner, Michael, and Shelley Frisch. Zionism: A Brief History (2003) excerpt and text search
- Cohen, Naomi. The Americanization of Zionism, 1897–1948 (2003). 304 pp. essays on specialized topics
- Friedman, Isaiah. "Theodor Herzl: Political Activity and Achievements," Israel Studies 2004 9(3): 46–79, online in EBSCO
- David Hazony, Yoram Hazony, and Michael B. Oren, eds., "New Essays on Zionism," Shalem Press, 2007.
- Kloke, Martin: The Development of Zionism Until the Founding of the State of Israel, European History Online, Mainz: Institute of European History, 2010, retrieved: June 13, 2012.
- Laqueuer, Walter. A History of Zionism: From the French Revolution to the Establishment of the State of Israel (2003) survey by a leading scholar excerpt and text search
- Medoff, Rafael. "Recent Trends in the Historiography of American Zionism," American Jewish History 86 (March 1998), 117–134.
- Motyl, Alexander J. (2001). Encyclopedia of Nationalism, Volume II. Academic Press. ISBN 0-12-227230-7.
- Pawel, Ernst. The Labyrinth of Exile: A Life of Theodor Herzl (1992) excerpt and text search
- Sachar, Howard M. A History of Israel: From the Rise of Zionism to Our Time (2007) excerpt and text search
- Shimoni, Gideon. The Zionist Ideology (1995)
- Taub, Gadi. The Settlers and the Struggle over the Meaning of Zionism (2010, Hebrew, English)
- Taylor, A.R., 1971, 'Vision and intent in Zionist Thought', in 'The transformation of Palestine', ed. by I. Abu-Lughod, ISBN 0-8101-0345-1, Northwestern University Press, Evanston, USA
- Urofsky, Melvin I. American Zionism from Herzl to the Holocaust (1995), a standard history
- Wigoder, Geoffrey, ed. New Encyclopedia of Zionism and Israel (2nd ed. 2 vol. 1994); 1521pp
Primary sources
- Herzl, Theodor. A Jewish state: an attempt at a modern solution of the Jewish question (1896) full text online
- Herzl, Theodor. Theodor Herzl: Excerpts from His Diaries (2006) excerpt and text search
External links
 | Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Zionism |
 | Wikisource has original text related to this article: |
Works related to Zionism at Wikisource
- Jewish State.com Zionism, News, Links
- Exodus1947.com PBS Documentary Film focusing on the secret American involvement in Aliyah Bet, narrated by Morley Safer
- SAZ — Support Association for Zionism
- Hanoar Hatzioni UK A Jewish-Zionist Youth Movement
- Theodore Herzl and Rev. William Hechler and the Zionist Beginnings
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Barack Obama
| Barack Obama | |
|---|---|
 | |
| 44th President of the United States | |
| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office January 20, 2009 | |
| Vice President | Joe Biden |
| Preceded by | George W. Bush |
| United States Senator from Illinois | |
| In office January 3, 2005 – November 16, 2008 | |
| Preceded by | Peter Fitzgerald |
| Succeeded by | Roland Burris |
| Member of the Illinois Senate from the 13th District | |
| In office January 8, 1997 – November 4, 2004 | |
| Preceded by | Alice Palmer |
| Succeeded by | Kwame Raoul |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Barack Hussein Obama II August 4, 1961 [1] Honolulu, Hawaii, U.S.[2] |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse(s) | Michelle Robinson (October 3, 1992–present) |
| Children | Malia (born 1998) Sasha (born 2001) |
| Residence | White House (Official) Chicago, Illinois (Private) |
| Alma mater | Occidental College Columbia College (B.A.) Harvard Law School (J.D.) |
| Profession | Community organizer Lawyer Constitutional law professor Author |
| Religion | Christianity[3] |
| Awards | Nobel Peace Prize |
| Signature |  |
| Website | barackobama.com |
 | This article is part of a series on Barack Obama |
|---|---|
Barack Hussein Obama II (
i/bəˈrɑːk huːˈseɪn oʊˈbɑːmə/; born August 4, 1961) is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office.
Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, Obama is a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School, where he was president of the Harvard Law Review. He was a community organizer in Chicago before earning his law degree. He worked as a civil rights attorney in Chicago and taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School from 1992 to 2004. He served three terms representing the 13th District in the Illinois Senate from 1997 to 2004, running unsuccessfully for the United States House of Representatives in 2000.
Several events earned Obama national attention during his campaign to represent the State of Illinois in the United States Senate in 2004, including his victory in the March 2004 Illinois Democratic primary and his keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in July 2004. He won the Senate election in November 2004, serving until his resignation following his 2008 presidential election victory. His presidential campaign began in February 2007, and after a close race in the 2008 Democratic Party presidential primaries against Hillary Rodham Clinton, he won his party's nomination. In the 2008 presidential election, he defeated Republican nominee John McCain, and was inaugurated as president on January 20, 2009. Nine months later, Obama was named the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize laureate. In April 2011, he announced that he would be running for re-election in 2012.
As president, Obama signed economic stimulus legislation in the form of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010 in response to the 2007–2009 recession in the United States. Other major domestic policy initiatives include the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010, and the Budget Control Act of 2011. In foreign policy, Obama ended US military involvement in the Iraq War, increased troop levels in Afghanistan, signed the New START arms control treaty with Russia, ordered U.S. military involvement in Libya, and ordered the military operation that resulted in the death of Osama bin Laden. In May 2012, he became the first sitting U.S. president to publicly support legalizing same-sex marriage.
Contents |
Early life and career
Obama was born on August 4, 1961, at Kapiʻolani Maternity & Gynecological Hospital (now Kapiʻolani Medical Center for Women and Children) in Honolulu, Hawaii,[2][4][5] and is the first President to have been born in Hawaii.[6] His mother, Ann Dunham, was born in Wichita, Kansas, and was of mostly English ancestry.[7] His father, Barack Obama, Sr., was a Luo from Nyang'oma Kogelo, Kenya. Obama's parents met in 1960 in a Russian class at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, where his father was a foreign student on scholarship.[8][9] The couple married in Wailuku on Maui on February 2, 1961,[10][11] and separated when Obama's mother moved with her newborn son to Seattle, Washington, in late August 1961, to attend the University of Washington for one year. In the meantime, Obama, Sr. completed his undergraduate economics degree in Hawaii in June 1962, then left to attend graduate school at Harvard University on a scholarship. His parents divorced in March 1964.[12] Obama Sr. returned to Kenya in 1964 where he remarried; he visited Barack in Hawaii only once, in 1971.[13] He died in an automobile accident in 1982.[14]
In 1963, Dunham met Lolo Soetoro, an Indonesian East–West Center graduate student in geography at the University of Hawaii, and the couple were married on Molokai on March 15, 1965.[15] After two one-year extensions of his J-1 visa, Lolo returned to Indonesia in 1966, followed sixteen months later by his wife and stepson in 1967, with the family initially living in a Menteng Dalam neighborhood in the Tebet subdistrict of south Jakarta, then from 1970 in a wealthier neighborhood in the Menteng subdistrict of central Jakarta.[16] From ages six to ten, Obama attended local Indonesian-language schools: St. Francis of Assisi Catholic School for two years and Besuki Public School from one and half years, supplemented by English-language Calvert School home schooling by his mother.[17]
In 1971, Obama returned to Honolulu to live with his maternal grandparents, Madelyn and Stanley Dunham, and with the aid of a scholarship attended Punahou School, a private college preparatory school, from fifth grade until his graduation from high school in 1979.[18] Obama lived with his mother and sister in Hawaii for three years from 1972 to 1975 while his mother was a graduate student in anthropology at the University of Hawaii.[19] Obama chose to stay in Hawaii with his grandparents for high school at Punahou when his mother and sister returned to Indonesia in 1975 to begin anthropology field work.[20] His mother spent most of the next two decades in Indonesia, divorcing Lolo in 1980 and earning a Ph.D. in 1992, before dying in 1995 in Hawaii following treatment for ovarian cancer and uterine cancer.[21]
Of his early childhood, Obama recalled, "That my father looked nothing like the people around me—that he was black as pitch, my mother white as milk—barely registered in my mind."[9] He described his struggles as a young adult to reconcile social perceptions of his multiracial heritage.[22] Reflecting later on his years in Honolulu, Obama wrote: "The opportunity that Hawaii offered—to experience a variety of cultures in a climate of mutual respect—became an integral part of my world view, and a basis for the values that I hold most dear."[23] Obama has also written and talked about using alcohol, marijuana, and cocaine during his teenage years to "push questions of who I was out of my mind".[24] Obama was also member of the "choom gang", a self named group of friends that spent time together and occasionally smoked marijuana.[25][26] At the 2008 Civil Forum on the Presidency, Obama expressed regret for his high-school drug use.[27]
Following high school, Obama moved to Los Angeles in 1979 to attend Occidental College. In February 1981, he made his first public speech, calling for Occidental to divest from South Africa in response to its policy of apartheid.[28] In mid-1981, Obama traveled to Indonesia to visit his mother and sister Maya, and visited the families of college friends in Pakistan and India for three weeks.[28] Later in 1981, he transferred to Columbia University in New York City, where he majored in political science with a specialty in international relations[29] and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1983. He worked for a year at the Business International Corporation,[30] then at the New York Public Interest Research Group.[31][32]
Chicago community organizer and Harvard Law School
Two years after graduating, Obama was hired in Chicago as director of the Developing Communities Project (DCP), a church-based community organization originally comprising eight Catholic parishes in Roseland, West Pullman, and Riverdale on Chicago's South Side. He worked there as a community organizer from June 1985 to May 1988.[32][33] He helped set up a job training program, a college preparatory tutoring program, and a tenants' rights organization in Altgeld Gardens.[34] Obama also worked as a consultant and instructor for the Gamaliel Foundation, a community organizing institute.[35] In mid-1988, he traveled for the first time in Europe for three weeks and then for five weeks in Kenya, where he met many of his paternal relatives for the first time.[36][37] He returned to Kenya in 1992 with his fiancée Michelle and his sister Auma.[36][38] He returned to Kenya in August 2006 for a visit to his father's birthplace, a village near Kisumu in rural western Kenya.[39]
In late 1988, Obama entered Harvard Law School. He was selected as an editor of the Harvard Law Review at the end of his first year,[40] and president of the journal in his second year.[34][41] During his summers, he returned to Chicago, where he worked as an associate at the law firms of Sidley Austin in 1989 and Hopkins & Sutter in 1990.[42] After graduating with a J.D. magna cum laude[43] from Harvard in 1991, he returned to Chicago.[40] Obama's election as the first black president of the Harvard Law Review gained national media attention[34][41] and led to a publishing contract and advance for a book about race relations,[44] which evolved into a personal memoir. The manuscript was published in mid-1995 as Dreams from My Father.[44]
University of Chicago Law School and civil rights attorney
In 1991, Obama accepted a two-year position as Visiting Law and Government Fellow at the University of Chicago Law School to work on his first book.[44][45] He then taught at the University of Chicago Law School for twelve years—as a Lecturer from 1992 to 1996, and as a Senior Lecturer from 1996 to 2004—teaching constitutional law.[46]
From April to October 1992, Obama directed Illinois's Project Vote, a voter registration campaign with ten staffers and seven hundred volunteer registrars; it achieved its goal of registering 150,000 of 400,000 unregistered African Americans in the state, leading Crain's Chicago Business to name Obama to its 1993 list of "40 under Forty" powers to be.[47]
In 1993, he joined Davis, Miner, Barnhill & Galland, a 13-attorney law firm specializing in civil rights litigation and neighborhood economic development, where he was an associate for three years from 1993 to 1996, then of counsel from 1996 to 2004. His law license became inactive in 2007.[48][49]
From 1994 to 2002, Obama served on the boards of directors of the Woods Fund of Chicago, which in 1985 had been the first foundation to fund the Developing Communities Project; and of the Joyce Foundation.[32] He served on the board of directors of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge from 1995 to 2002, as founding president and chairman of the board of directors from 1995 to 1999.[32]
Legislative career: 1997–2008
State Senator: 1997–2004
Obama was elected to the Illinois Senate in 1996, succeeding State Senator Alice Palmer as Senator from Illinois's 13th District, which at that time spanned Chicago South Side neighborhoods from Hyde Park – Kenwood south to South Shore and west to Chicago Lawn.[50] Once elected, Obama gained bipartisan support for legislation that reformed ethics and health care laws.[51] He sponsored a law that increased tax credits for low-income workers, negotiated welfare reform, and promoted increased subsidies for childcare.[52] In 2001, as co-chairman of the bipartisan Joint Committee on Administrative Rules, Obama supported Republican Governor Ryan's payday loan regulations and predatory mortgage lending regulations aimed at averting home foreclosures.[53]
Obama was reelected to the Illinois Senate in 1998, defeating Republican Yesse Yehudah in the general election, and was reelected again in 2002.[54] In 2000, he lost a Democratic primary race for Illinois's 1st congressional district in the United States House of Representatives to four-term incumbent Bobby Rush by a margin of two to one.[55]
In January 2003, Obama became chairman of the Illinois Senate's Health and Human Services Committee when Democrats, after a decade in the minority, regained a majority.[56] He sponsored and led unanimous, bipartisan passage of legislation to monitor racial profiling by requiring police to record the race of drivers they detained, and legislation making Illinois the first state to mandate videotaping of homicide interrogations.[52][57] During his 2004 general election campaign for U.S. Senate, police representatives credited Obama for his active engagement with police organizations in enacting death penalty reforms.[58] Obama resigned from the Illinois Senate in November 2004 following his election to the U.S. Senate.[59]
U.S. Senate campaign
In May 2002, Obama commissioned a poll to assess his prospects in a 2004 U.S. Senate race; he created a campaign committee, began raising funds, and lined up political media consultant David Axelrod by August 2002. Obama formally announced his candidacy in January 2003.[60]
Obama was an early opponent of the George W. Bush administration's 2003 invasion of Iraq.[61] On October 2, 2002, the day President Bush and Congress agreed on the joint resolution authorizing the Iraq War,[62] Obama addressed the first high-profile Chicago anti-Iraq War rally,[63] and spoke out against the war.[64] He addressed another anti-war rally in March 2003 and told the crowd that "it's not too late" to stop the war.[65]
Decisions by Republican incumbent Peter Fitzgerald and his Democratic predecessor Carol Moseley Braun to not participate in the election resulted in wide-open Democratic and Republican primary contests involving fifteen candidates.[66] In the March 2004 primary election, Obama won in an unexpected landslide—which overnight made him a rising star within the national Democratic Party, started speculation about a presidential future, and led to the reissue of his memoir, Dreams from My Father.[67] In July 2004, Obama delivered the keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention,[68] seen by 9.1 million viewers. His speech was well received and elevated his status within the Democratic Party.[69]
Obama's expected opponent in the general election, Republican primary winner Jack Ryan, withdrew from the race in June 2004.[70] Six weeks later, Alan Keyes accepted the Republican nomination to replace Ryan.[71] In the November 2004 general election, Obama won with 70 percent of the vote.[72]
U.S. Senator: 2005–2008
Obama was sworn in as a senator on January 3, 2005,[73] becoming the only Senate member of the Congressional Black Caucus.[74] CQ Weekly characterized him as a "loyal Democrat" based on analysis of all Senate votes in 2005–2007. Obama announced on November 13, 2008, that he would resign his Senate seat on November 16, 2008, before the start of the lame-duck session, to focus on his transition period for the presidency.[75]
Legislation
Obama cosponsored the Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act.[76] He introduced two initiatives that bore his name: Lugar–Obama, which expanded the Nunn–Lugar cooperative threat reduction concept to conventional weapons;[77] and the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006, which authorized the establishment of USAspending.gov, a web search engine on federal spending.[78] On June 3, 2008, Senator Obama—along with Senators Tom Carper, Tom Coburn, and John McCain—introduced follow-up legislation: Strengthening Transparency and Accountability in Federal Spending Act of 2008.[79]
Obama sponsored legislation that would have required nuclear plant owners to notify state and local authorities of radioactive leaks, but the bill failed to pass in the full Senate after being heavily modified in committee.[80] Regarding tort reform, Obama voted for the Class Action Fairness Act of 2005 and the FISA Amendments Act of 2008, which grants immunity from civil liability to telecommunications companies complicit with NSA warrantless wiretapping operations.[81]
In December 2006, President Bush signed into law the Democratic Republic of the Congo Relief, Security, and Democracy Promotion Act, marking the first federal legislation to be enacted with Obama as its primary sponsor.[83] In January 2007, Obama and Senator Feingold introduced a corporate jet provision to the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act, which was signed into law in September 2007.[84] Obama also introduced Deceptive Practices and Voter Intimidation Prevention Act, a bill to criminalize deceptive practices in federal elections,[85] and the Iraq War De-Escalation Act of 2007,[86] neither of which was signed into law.
Later in 2007, Obama sponsored an amendment to the Defense Authorization Act to add safeguards for personality-disorder military discharges.[87] This amendment passed the full Senate in the spring of 2008.[88] He sponsored the Iran Sanctions Enabling Act supporting divestment of state pension funds from Iran's oil and gas industry, which has not passed committee; and co-sponsored legislation to reduce risks of nuclear terrorism.[89] Obama also sponsored a Senate amendment to the State Children's Health Insurance Program, providing one year of job protection for family members caring for soldiers with combat-related injuries.[90]
Committees
Obama held assignments on the Senate Committees for Foreign Relations, Environment and Public Works, and Veterans' Affairs through December 2006.[91] In January 2007, he left the Environment and Public Works committee and took additional assignments with Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions and Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.[92] He also became Chairman of the Senate's subcommittee on European Affairs.[93] As a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Obama made official trips to Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia and Africa. He met with Mahmoud Abbas before Abbas became President of the Palestinian National Authority, and gave a speech at the University of Nairobi in which he condemned corruption within the Kenyan government.[94]
Presidential campaigns
2008 presidential campaign
On February 10, 2007, Obama announced his candidacy for President of the United States in front of the Old State Capitol building in Springfield, Illinois.[95][96] The choice of the announcement site was viewed as symbolic because it was also where Abraham Lincoln delivered his historic "House Divided" speech in 1858.[95][97] Obama emphasized issues of rapidly ending the Iraq War, increasing energy independence, and providing universal health care,[98] in a campaign that projected themes of "hope" and "change".[99]
A large number of candidates entered the Democratic Party presidential primaries. The field narrowed to a duel between Obama and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton after early contests, with the race remaining close throughout the primary process but with Obama gaining a steady lead in pledged delegates due to better long-range planning, superior fundraising, dominant organizing in caucus states, and better exploitation of delegate allocation rules.[100] On June 7, 2008, Clinton ended her campaign and endorsed Obama.[101]
On August 23, Obama announced his selection of Delaware Senator Joe Biden as his vice presidential running mate.[102] Biden was selected from a field speculated to include former Indiana Governor and Senator Evan Bayh and Virginia Governor Tim Kaine.[103] At the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado, Hillary Clinton called for her supporters to endorse Obama, and she and Bill Clinton gave convention speeches in his support.[104] Obama delivered his acceptance speech, not at the center where the Democratic National Convention was held, but at Invesco Field at Mile High to a crowd of over 75,000; the speech was viewed by over 38 million people worldwide.[105][106]
During both the primary process and the general election, Obama's campaign set numerous fundraising records, particularly in the quantity of small donations.[107] On June 19, 2008, Obama became the first major-party presidential candidate to turn down public financing in the general election since the system was created in 1976.[108]
John McCain was nominated as the Republican candidate and the two engaged in three presidential debates in September and October 2008.[109] On November 4, Obama won the presidency with 365 electoral votes to 173 received by McCain.[110] Obama won 52.9% of the popular vote to McCain's 45.7%.[111] He became the first African American to be elected president.[112] Obama delivered his victory speech before hundreds of thousands of supporters in Chicago's Grant Park.[113]
2012 presidential campaign
On April 4, 2011, Obama announced his re-election campaign for 2012 in a video titled "It Begins with Us" that he posted on his website and filed election papers with the Federal Election Commission.[114][115][116] As the incumbent president he ran virtually unopposed in the Democratic Party presidential primaries,[117] and on April 3, 2012, Obama had secured the 2778 convention delegates needed to win the Democratic nomination.[118]
At the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, former President Bill Clinton formally nominated Obama and Joe Biden as the Democratic Party candidates for president and vice president.[119]
Presidency
First days
The inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th President took place on January 20, 2009. In his first few days in office, Obama issued executive orders and presidential memoranda directing the U.S. military to develop plans to withdraw troops from Iraq.[120] He ordered the closing of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp,[121] but Congress prevented the closure by refusing to appropriate the required funds.[122][123][124] Obama reduced the secrecy given to presidential records.[125] He also revoked President George W. Bush's restoration of President Reagan's Mexico City Policy prohibiting federal aid to international family planning organizations that perform or provide counseling about abortion.[126]
Domestic policy
The first bill signed into law by Obama was the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, relaxing the statute of limitations for equal-pay lawsuits.[127] Five days later, he signed the reauthorization of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) to cover an additional 4 million uninsured children.[128] In March 2009, Obama reversed a Bush-era policy which had limited funding of embryonic stem cell research and pledged to develop "strict guidelines" on the research.[129]
Obama appointed two women to serve on the Supreme Court in the first two years of his Presidency. Sonia Sotomayor, nominated by Obama on May 26, 2009, to replace retiring Associate Justice David Souter, was confirmed on August 6, 2009,[130] becoming the first Hispanic Supreme Court Justice.[131] Elena Kagan, nominated by Obama on May 10, 2010, to replace retiring Associate Justice John Paul Stevens, was confirmed on August 5, 2010, bringing the number of women sitting simultaneously on the Court to three, for the first time in American history.[132]
On September 30, 2009, the Obama administration proposed new regulations on power plants, factories and oil refineries in an attempt to limit greenhouse gas emissions and to curb global warming.[133][134]
On October 8, 2009, Obama signed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, a measure that expands the 1969 United States federal hate-crime law to include crimes motivated by a victim's actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability.[135][136]
On March 30, 2010, Obama signed the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act, a reconciliation bill which ends the process of the federal government giving subsidies to private banks to give out federally insured loans, increases the Pell Grant scholarship award, and makes changes to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.[137][138]
In a major space policy speech in April 2010, Obama announced a planned change in direction at NASA, the U.S. space agency. He ended plans for a return of human spaceflight to the moon and development of the Ares I rocket, Ares V rocket and Constellation program, in favor of funding Earth science projects, a new rocket type, and research and development for an eventual manned mission to Mars, and ongoing missions to the International Space Station.[139]
On December 22, 2010, Obama signed the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010, fulfilling a key promise made in the 2008 presidential campaign[140][141] to end the Don't ask, don't tell policy of 1993 that had prevented gay and lesbian people from serving openly in the United States Armed Forces.[142]
President Obama's 2011 State of the Union Address focused on themes of education and innovation, stressing the importance of innovation economics to make the United States more competitive globally. He spoke of a five-year freeze in domestic spending, eliminating tax breaks for oil companies and reversing tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, banning congressional earmarks, and reducing healthcare costs. He promised that the United States would have one million electric vehicles on the road by 2015 and would be 80% reliant on "clean" electricity.[143][144]
As a candidate for the Illinois state senate Obama had said in 1996 that he favored legalizing same-sex marriage;[145] but by the time of his run for the U.S. senate in 2004, he said that while he supported civil unions and domestic partnerships for same-sex partners, for strategic reasons he opposed same-sex marriages.[146] On May 9, 2012, shortly after the official launch of his campaign for re-election as president, Obama said his views had evolved, and he publicly affirmed his personal support for the legalization of same-sex marriage, becoming the first sitting U.S. president to do so.[147][148]
Economic policy
On February 17, 2009, Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, a $787 billion economic stimulus package aimed at helping the economy recover from the deepening worldwide recession.[149] The act includes increased federal spending for health care, infrastructure, education, various tax breaks and incentives, and direct assistance to individuals,[150] which is being distributed over the course of several years.
In March, Obama's Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner, took further steps to manage the financial crisis, including introducing the Public-Private Investment Program for Legacy Assets, which contains provisions for buying up to $2 trillion in depreciated real estate assets.[151] Obama intervened in the troubled automotive industry[152] in March 2009, renewing loans for General Motors and Chrysler to continue operations while reorganizing. Over the following months the White House set terms for both firms' bankruptcies, including the sale of Chrysler to Italian automaker Fiat[153] and a reorganization of GM giving the U.S. government a temporary 60% equity stake in the company, with the Canadian government taking a 12% stake.[154] In June 2009, dissatisfied with the pace of economic stimulus, Obama called on his cabinet to accelerate the investment.[155] He signed into law the Car Allowance Rebate System, known colloquially as "Cash for Clunkers", that temporarily boosted the economy.[156][157][158]
Although spending and loan guarantees from the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department authorized by the Bush and Obama administrations totaled about $11.5 trillion, only $3 trillion had been spent by the end of November 2009.[159] However, Obama and the Congressional Budget Office predicted that the 2010 budget deficit will be $1.5 trillion or 10.6% of the nation's gross domestic product (GDP) compared to the 2009 deficit of $1.4 trillion or 9.9% of GDP.[160][161] For 2011, the administration predicted the deficit will slightly shrink to $1.34 trillion, while the 10-year deficit will increase to $8.53 trillion or 90% of GDP.[162] The most recent increase in the U.S. debt ceiling to $16.4 trillion was signed into law on January 26, 2012.[163] On August 2, 2011, after a lengthy congressional debate over whether to raise the nation's debt limit, Obama signed the bipartisan Budget Control Act of 2011. The legislation enforces limits on discretionary spending until 2021, establishes a procedure to increase the debt limit, creates a Congressional Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction to propose further deficit reduction with a stated goal of achieving at least $1.5 trillion in budgetary savings over 10 years, and establishes automatic procedures for reducing spending by as much as $1.2 trillion if legislation originating with the new joint select committee does not achieve such savings.[164] By passing the legislation, Congress was able to prevent a U.S. government default on its obligations.[165]
As it did throughout 2008, the unemployment rate rose in 2009, reaching a peak in October at 10.0% and averaging 10.0% in the fourth quarter. Following a decrease to 9.7% in the first quarter of 2010, the unemployment rate fell to 9.6% in the second quarter, where it remained for the rest of the year.[168] Between February and December 2010, employment rose by 0.8%, which was less than the average of 1.9% experienced during comparable periods in the past four employment recoveries.[169] GDP growth returned in the third quarter of 2009, expanding at a rate of 1.6%, followed by a 5.0% increase in the fourth quarter.[170] Growth continued in 2010, posting an increase of 3.7% in the first quarter, with lesser gains throughout the rest of the year.[170] In July 2010, the Federal Reserve expressed that although economic activity continued to increase, its pace had slowed, and Chairman Ben Bernanke stated that the economic outlook was "unusually uncertain."[171] Overall, the economy expanded at a rate of 2.9% in 2010.[172]
The Congressional Budget Office and a broad range of economists credit Obama's stimulus plan for economic growth.[173][174] The CBO released a report stating that the stimulus bill increased employment by 1–2.1 million,[174][175][176][177] while conceding that "It is impossible to determine how many of the reported jobs would have existed in the absence of the stimulus package."[173] Although an April 2010 survey of members of the National Association for Business Economics showed an increase in job creation (over a similar January survey) for the first time in two years, 73% of 68 respondents believed that the stimulus bill has had no impact on employment.[178]
Within a month of the 2010 midterm elections, Obama announced a compromise deal with the Congressional Republican leadership that included a temporary, two-year extension of the 2001 and 2003 income tax rates, a one-year payroll tax reduction, continuation of unemployment benefits, and a new rate and exemption amount for estate taxes.[179] The compromise overcame opposition from some in both parties, and the resulting $858 billion Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010 passed with bipartisan majorities in both houses of Congress before Obama signed it on December 17, 2010.[180]
Health care reform
Obama called for Congress to pass legislation reforming health care in the United States, a key campaign promise and a top legislative goal.[181] He proposed an expansion of health insurance coverage to cover the uninsured, to cap premium increases, and to allow people to retain their coverage when they leave or change jobs. His proposal was to spend $900 billion over 10 years and include a government insurance plan, also known as the public option, to compete with the corporate insurance sector as a main component to lowering costs and improving quality of health care. It would also make it illegal for insurers to drop sick people or deny them coverage for pre-existing conditions, and require every American carry health coverage. The plan also includes medical spending cuts and taxes on insurance companies that offer expensive plans.[182][183]
On July 14, 2009, House Democratic leaders introduced a 1,017-page plan for overhauling the U.S. health care system, which Obama wanted Congress to approve by the end of 2009.[181] After much public debate during the Congressional summer recess of 2009, Obama delivered a speech to a joint session of Congress on September 9 where he addressed concerns over the proposals.[184] In March 2009, Obama lifted a ban on using federal funds for stem cell research.[185]
On November 7, 2009, a health care bill featuring the public option was passed in the House.[186][187] On December 24, 2009, the Senate passed its own bill—without a public option—on a party-line vote of 60–39.[188] On March 21, 2010, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act passed by the Senate in December was passed in the House by a vote of 219 to 212.[189] Obama signed the bill into law on March 23, 2010.[190]
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act includes health-related provisions to take effect over four years, including expanding Medicaid eligibility for people making up to 133% of the federal poverty level (FPL) starting in 2014,[191] subsidizing insurance premiums for people making up to 400% of the FPL ($88,000 for family of four in 2010) so their maximum "out-of-pocket" payment for annual premiums will be from 2 to 9.5% of income,[192][193] providing incentives for businesses to provide health care benefits, prohibiting denial of coverage and denial of claims based on pre-existing conditions, establishing health insurance exchanges, prohibiting annual coverage caps, and support for medical research. According to White House and Congressional Budget Office figures, the maximum share of income that enrollees would have to pay would vary depending on their income relative to the federal poverty level.[192][194]
The costs of these provisions are offset by taxes, fees, and cost-saving measures, such as new Medicare taxes for those in high-income brackets, taxes on indoor tanning, cuts to the Medicare Advantage program in favor of traditional Medicare, and fees on medical devices and pharmaceutical companies;[195] there is also a tax penalty for those who do not obtain health insurance, unless they are exempt due to low income or other reasons.[196] In March, 2010, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the net effect of both laws will be a reduction in the federal deficit by $143 billion over the first decade.[197]
The law faced several legal challenges, primarily based on the argument that an individual mandate requiring Americans to buy health insurance was unconstitutional. On June 28, 2012, the Supreme Court ruled by a 5–4 vote in National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius that the Commerce Clause does not allow the government to require people to buy health insurance, but the mandate was constitutional under the US Congress's taxing authority.[198]
Gulf of Mexico oil spill
On April 20, 2010, an explosion destroyed an offshore drilling rig at the Macondo Prospect in the Gulf of Mexico, causing a major sustained oil leak. The well's operator, BP, initiated a containment and cleanup plan, and began drilling two relief wells intended to stop the flow. Obama visited the Gulf on May 2 among visits by members of his cabinet, and again on May 28 and June 4. On May 22, he announced a federal investigation and formed a bipartisan commission to recommend new safety standards, after a review by Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and concurrent Congressional hearings. On May 27, he announced a 6-month moratorium on new deepwater drilling permits and leases, pending regulatory review.[199] As multiple efforts by BP failed, some in the media and public expressed confusion and criticism over various aspects of the incident, and stated a desire for more involvement by Obama and the federal government.[200]
2010 midterm election
Obama called the November 2, 2010 election, where the Democratic Party lost 63 seats in, and control of, the House of Representatives,[201] "humbling" and a "shellacking".[202] He said that the results came because not enough Americans had felt the effects of the economic recovery.[203]
Foreign policy
In February and March, Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton made separate overseas trips to announce a "new era" in U.S. foreign relations with Russia and Europe, using the terms "break" and "reset" to signal major changes from the policies of the preceding administration.[204] Obama attempted to reach out to Arab leaders by granting his first interview to an Arab cable TV network, Al Arabiya.[205]
On March 19, Obama continued his outreach to the Muslim world, releasing a New Year's video message to the people and government of Iran.[206] This attempt was rebuffed by the Iranian leadership.[207] In April, Obama gave a speech in Ankara, Turkey, which was well received by many Arab governments.[208] On June 4, 2009, Obama delivered a speech at Cairo University in Egypt calling for "a new beginning" in relations between the Islamic world and the United States and promoting Middle East peace.[209]
On June 26, 2009, in response to the Iranian government's actions towards protesters following Iran's 2009 presidential election, Obama said: "The violence perpetrated against them is outrageous. We see it and we condemn it."[210] On July 7, while in Moscow, he responded to a Vice President Biden comment on a possible Israeli military strike on Iran by saying: "We have said directly to the Israelis that it is important to try and resolve this in an international setting in a way that does not create major conflict in the Middle East."[211]
On September 24, 2009, Obama became the first sitting U.S. president to preside over a meeting of the United Nations Security Council.[212]
In March 2010, Obama took a public stance against plans by the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to continue building Jewish housing projects in predominantly Arab neighborhoods of East Jerusalem.[213][214] During the same month, an agreement was reached with the administration of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to replace the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty with a new pact reducing the number of long-range nuclear weapons in the arsenals of both countries by about one-third.[215] The New START treaty was signed by Obama and Medvedev in April 2010, and was ratified by the U.S. Senate in December 2010.[216]
On December 6, 2011, he instructed agencies to consider LGBT rights when issuing financial aid to foreign countries.[217]
Iraq War
On February 27, 2009, Obama announced that combat operations in Iraq would end within 18 months. His remarks were made to a group of Marines preparing for deployment to Afghanistan. Obama said, "Let me say this as plainly as I can: by August 31, 2010, our combat mission in Iraq will end."[218] The Obama administration scheduled the withdrawal of combat troops to be completed by August 2010, decreasing troops levels from 142,000 while leaving a transitional force of 35,000 to 50,000 in Iraq until the end of 2011.[needs update] On August 19, 2010, the last United States combat brigade exited Iraq. Remaining troops transitioned from combat operations to counter-terrorism and the training, equipping, and advising of Iraqi security forces.[219][220] On August 31, 2010, Obama announced that the United States combat mission in Iraq was over.[221] On October 21, 2011 President Obama announced that all U.S. troops would leave Iraq in time to be "home for the holidays".[222]
War in Afghanistan
Early in his presidency, Obama moved to bolster U.S. troop strength in Afghanistan.[223] He announced an increase to U.S. troop levels of 17,000 in February 2009 to "stabilize a deteriorating situation in Afghanistan", an area he said had not received the "strategic attention, direction and resources it urgently requires".[224] He replaced the military commander in Afghanistan, General David D. McKiernan, with former Special Forces commander Lt. Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal in May 2009, indicating that McChrystal's Special Forces experience would facilitate the use of counterinsurgency tactics in the war.[225] On December 1, 2009, Obama announced the deployment of an additional 30,000 military personnel to Afghanistan.[226] He also proposed to begin troop withdrawals 18 months from that date.[227][needs update] McChrystal was replaced by David Petraeus in June 2010, after McChrystal's staff criticized White House personnel in a magazine article.[228]
Israel
Obama referred to the bond between the United States and Israel as "unbreakable."[229] During the initial years of the Obama administration, the U.S. increased military cooperation with Israel, including increased military aid, re-establishment of the U.S.-Israeli Joint Political Military Group and the Defense Policy Advisory Group, and an increase in visits among high-level military officials of both countries.[230] The Obama administration asked Congress to allocate money toward funding the Iron Dome program in response to the waves of Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel.[231]
In 2011, the United States vetoed a Security Council resolution condemning Israeli settlements, with the United States being the only nation to do so.[232] Obama supports the two-state solution to the Arab–Israeli conflict based on the 1967 borders with land swaps.[233]
War in Libya
In March 2011, as forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi advanced on rebels across Libya, calls for a no-fly zone came from around the world, including Europe, the Arab League, and a resolution[234] passed unanimously by the U.S. Senate.[235] In response to the unanimous passage of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973 on March 17, Gaddafi who had previously vowed to "show no mercy" to the rebels of Benghazi[236]—announced an immediate cessation of military activities,[237] yet reports came in that his forces continued shelling Misrata. The next day, on Obama's orders, the U.S. military took a lead role in air strikes to destroy the Libyan government's air defense capabilities to protect civilians and enforce a no-fly-zone,[238] including the use of Tomahawk missiles, B-2 Spirits, and fighter jets.[239][240][241] Six days later, on March 25, by unanimous vote of all of its 28 members, NATO took over leadership of the effort, dubbed Operation Unified Protector.[242] Some Representatives[243] questioned whether Obama had the constitutional authority to order military action in addition to questioning its cost, structure and aftermath.[244][245]
Osama bin Laden
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Starting with information received in July 2010, intelligence developed by the CIA over the next several months determined what they believed to be the location of Osama bin Laden in a large compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, a suburban area 35 miles from Islamabad.[246] CIA head Leon Panetta reported this intelligence to President Obama in March 2011.[246] Meeting with his national security advisers over the course of the next six weeks, Obama rejected a plan to bomb the compound, and authorized a "surgical raid" to be conducted by United States Navy SEALs.[246] The operation took place on May 1, 2011, resulting in the death of bin Laden and the seizure of papers, computer drives and disks from the compound.[247][248] Bin Laden's body was identified through DNA testing,[249] and buried at sea several hours later.[250] Within minutes of the President's announcement from Washington, DC, late in the evening on May 1, there were spontaneous celebrations around the country as crowds gathered outside the White House, and at New York City's Ground Zero and Times Square.[247][251] Reaction to the announcement was positive across party lines, including from former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush,[252] and from many countries around the world.[253]
Cultural and political image
Obama's family history, upbringing, and Ivy League education differ markedly from those of African American politicians who launched their careers in the 1960s through participation in the civil rights movement.[255] Expressing puzzlement over questions about whether he is "black enough", Obama told an August 2007 meeting of the National Association of Black Journalists that "we're still locked in this notion that if you appeal to white folks then there must be something wrong".[256] Obama acknowledged his youthful image in an October 2007 campaign speech, saying: "I wouldn't be here if, time and again, the torch had not been passed to a new generation."[257]
Obama is frequently referred to as an exceptional orator.[258] During his pre-inauguration transition period and continuing into his presidency, Obama has delivered a series of weekly Internet video addresses.[259]
According to the Gallup Organization, Obama began his presidency with a 68% approval rating[260] before gradually declining for the rest of the year, and eventually bottoming out at 41% in August 2010,[261] a trend similar to Ronald Reagan's and Bill Clinton's first years in office.[262] He experienced a small poll bounce shortly after the death of Osama bin Laden, which lasted until around June 2011, when his approval numbers dropped back to where they were prior to the operation.[263][264][265] Polls show strong support for Obama in other countries,[266] and before being elected President he met with prominent foreign figures including British Prime Minister Tony Blair,[267] Italy's Democratic Party leader and Mayor of Rome Walter Veltroni,[268] and French President Nicolas Sarkozy.[269]
In a February 2009 poll conducted in Western Europe and the U.S. by Harris Interactive for France 24 and the International Herald Tribune, Obama was rated as the most respected world leader, as well as the most powerful.[270] In a similar poll conducted by Harris in May 2009, Obama was rated as the most popular world leader, as well as the one figure most people would pin their hopes on for pulling the world out of the economic downturn.[271][272]
Obama won Best Spoken Word Album Grammy Awards for abridged audiobook versions of Dreams from My Father in February 2006 and for The Audacity of Hope in February 2008.[273] His concession speech after the New Hampshire primary was set to music by independent artists as the music video "Yes We Can", which was viewed 10 million times on YouTube in its first month[274] and received a Daytime Emmy Award.[275] In December 2008, Time magazine named Obama as its Person of the Year for his historic candidacy and election, which it described as "the steady march of seemingly impossible accomplishments".[276]
On October 9, 2009, the Norwegian Nobel Committee announced that Obama had won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize "for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples".[277] Obama accepted this award in Oslo, Norway on December 10, 2009, with "deep gratitude and great humility."[278] The award drew a mixture of praise and criticism from world leaders and media figures.[279][280] Obama is the fourth U.S. president to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and the third to become a Nobel laureate while in office.
Family and personal life
In a 2006 interview, Obama highlighted the diversity of his extended family: "It's like a little mini-United Nations", he said. "I've got relatives who look like Bernie Mac, and I've got relatives who look like Margaret Thatcher."[281] Obama has a half-sister with whom he was raised (Maya Soetoro-Ng, the daughter of his mother and her Indonesian second husband) and seven half-siblings from his Kenyan father's family – six of them living.[282] Obama's mother was survived by her Kansas-born mother, Madelyn Dunham,[283] until her death on November 2, 2008,[284] two days before his election to the Presidency. Obama also has roots in Ireland; he met with his Irish cousins in Moneygall in May 2011.[285] In Dreams from My Father, Obama ties his mother's family history to possible Native American ancestors and distant relatives of Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War.[286]
Obama was known as "Barry" in his youth, but asked to be addressed with his given name during his college years.[287] Besides his native English, Obama speaks some basic Indonesian, having learned the language during his four childhood years in Jakarta,[288][289] He plays basketball, a sport he participated in as a member of his high school's varsity team[290] and he is left-handed.[291]
Obama is a supporter of the Chicago White Sox, and he threw out the first pitch at the 2005 ALCS when he was still a senator.[292] In 2009, he threw out the ceremonial first pitch at the all star game while wearing a White Sox jacket.[293] He is also primarily a Chicago Bears football fan in the NFL, but in his childhood and adolescence was a fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers, and rooted for them ahead of their victory in Super Bowl XLIII 12 days after he took office as President.[294] In 2011, Obama invited the 1985 Chicago Bears to the White House; the team had not visited the White House after their Super Bowl win in 1986 due to the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.[295]
In June 1989, Obama met Michelle Robinson when he was employed as a summer associate at the Chicago law firm of Sidley Austin.[296] Assigned for three months as Obama's adviser at the firm, Robinson joined him at group social functions, but declined his initial requests to date.[297] They began dating later that summer, became engaged in 1991, and were married on October 3, 1992.[298] The couple's first daughter, Malia Ann, was born on July 4, 1998,[299] followed by a second daughter, Natasha ("Sasha"), on June 10, 2001.[300] The Obama daughters attended the private University of Chicago Laboratory Schools. When they moved to Washington, D.C., in January 2009, the girls started at the private Sidwell Friends School.[301] The Obamas have a Portuguese Water Dog named Bo, a gift from Senator Ted Kennedy.[302]
Applying the proceeds of a book deal, the family moved in 2005 from a Hyde Park, Chicago condominium to a $1.6 million house in neighboring Kenwood, Chicago.[303] The purchase of an adjacent lot—and sale of part of it to Obama by the wife of developer, campaign donor and friend Tony Rezko—attracted media attention because of Rezko's subsequent indictment and conviction on political corruption charges that were unrelated to Obama.[304]
In December 2007, Money estimated the Obama family's net worth at $1.3 million.[305] Their 2009 tax return showed a household income of $5.5 million—up from about $4.2 million in 2007 and $1.6 million in 2005—mostly from sales of his books.[306][307] On his 2010 income of $1.7 million, he gave 14% to non-profit organizations, including $131,000 to Fisher House Foundation, a charity assisting wounded veterans' families, allowing them to reside near where the veteran is receiving medical treatments.[308][309] As per his 2012 financial disclosure, Obama may be worth as much as $10 million.[310]
Obama tried to quit smoking several times, sometimes using nicotine replacement therapy, and, in early 2010, Michelle Obama said that he had successfully quit smoking.[311][312]
Religious views
Obama is a Christian whose religious views developed in his adult life. He wrote in The Audacity of Hope that he "was not raised in a religious household". He described his mother, raised by non-religious parents (whom Obama has specified elsewhere as "non-practicing Methodists and Baptists"), to be detached from religion, yet "in many ways the most spiritually awakened person that I have ever known". He described his father as a "confirmed atheist" by the time his parents met, and his stepfather as "a man who saw religion as not particularly useful". Obama explained how, through working with black churches as a community organizer while in his twenties, he came to understand "the power of the African-American religious tradition to spur social change".[313]
In an interview with the evangelical periodical Christianity Today, Obama stated: "I am a Christian, and I am a devout Christian. I believe in the redemptive death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I believe that that faith gives me a path to be cleansed of sin and have eternal life."[314] On September 27, 2010, Obama released a statement commenting on his religious views saying "I'm a Christian by choice. My family didn't—frankly, they weren't folks who went to church every week. And my mother was one of the most spiritual people I knew, but she didn't raise me in the church. So I came to my Christian faith later in life, and it was because the precepts of Jesus Christ spoke to me in terms of the kind of life that I would want to lead—being my brothers' and sisters' keeper, treating others as they would treat me."[315][316]
Obama was baptized at the Trinity United Church of Christ in 1988, and was an active member there for two decades.[317] He resigned from Trinity during the Presidential campaign after controversial statements made by Rev. Jeremiah Wright became public.[318] After a prolonged effort to find a church to attend regularly in Washington, Obama announced in June 2009 that his primary place of worship would be the Evergreen Chapel at Camp David.[319]
Notes
- ^ "President Barack Obama". Washington, D.C.: The White House. 2008. Retrieved December 12, 2008.
- ^ a b "Certificate of Live Birth: Barack Hussein Obama II, August 4, 1961, 7:24 pm, Honolulu". Department of Health, State of Hawaii (The White House). April 27, 2011. Archived from the original on April 29, 2011. Retrieved April 27, 2011.
- ^ "American President: Barack Obama". Charlottesville, VA: Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia. 2009. Archived from the original on January 23, 2009. Retrieved January 23, 2009. "Religion: Christian"
- "The Truth about Barack's Faith". Obama for America. Archived from the original on January 5, 2011. Retrieved July 1, 2012.
- Miller, Lisa (July 18, 2008). "Finding his faith". Newsweek. Archived from the original on February 6, 2010. Retrieved February 4, 2010. "He is now a Christian, having been baptized in the early 1990s at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago."
- Barakat, Matthew (November 17, 2008). "Obama's church choice likely to be scrutinized; D.C. churches have started extending invitations to Obama and his family". Associated Press. msnbc.com. Archived from the original on January 24, 2009. Retrieved January 20, 2009. "The United Church of Christ, the denomination from which Obama resigned when he left Wright's church, issued a written invitation to join a UCC denomination in Washington and resume his connections to the church.".
- "Barack Obama, long time UCC member, inaugurated forty-fourth U.S. President". United Church of Christ. January 20, 2009. Archived from the original on January 25, 2009. Retrieved January 21, 2009. "Barack Obama, who spent more than 20 years as a UCC member, is the forty-fourth President of the United States."
- Sullivan, Amy (June 29, 2009). "The Obama's find a church home—away from home". Time. Retrieved February 5, 2010. "instead of joining a congregation in Washington, D.C., he will follow in George W. Bush's footsteps and make his primary place of worship Evergreen Chapel, the nondenominational church at Camp David.".
- Kornblut, Anne E. (February 4, 2010). "Obama's spirituality is largely private, but it's influential, advisers say". The Washington Post. p. A6. Retrieved February 5, 2010. "Obama prays privately ... And when he takes his family to Camp David on the weekends, a Navy chaplain ministers to them, with the daughters attending a form of Sunday school there."
- ^ Maraniss, David (August 24, 2008). "Though Obama had to leave to find himself, it is Hawaii that made his rise possible". The Washington Post. p. A22. Retrieved October 28, 2008.
- ^ Nakaso, Dan (December 22, 2008). "Twin sisters, Obama on parallel paths for years". The Honolulu Advertiser. p. B1. Retrieved January 22, 2011.
- ^ Rudin, Ken (December 23, 2009). "Today's Junkie segment On TOTN: a political review Of 2009". Talk of the Nation (Political Junkie blog) (NPR). Retrieved April 18, 2010. "We began with the historic inauguration on January 20—yes, the first president ever born in Hawaii"
- ^ Obama (1995, 2004), p. 12.
- ^ Jones, Tim (March 27, 2007). "Barack Obama: Mother not just a girl from Kansas; Stanley Ann Dunham shaped a future senator". Chicago Tribune. p. 1 (Tempo). Archived from the original on February 21, 2009. Retrieved May 18, 2012.
- ^ a b Obama (1995, 2004), pp. 9–10.
- Scott (2011), pp. 80–86.
- Jacobs (2011), pp. 115–118.
- Maraniss (2012), p. 154–160.
- ^ Ripley, Amanda (April 9, 2008). "The story of Barack Obama's mother". Time. Retrieved April 9, 2007.
- ^ Scott (2011), p. 86.
- Jacobs (2011), pp. 125–127.
- Maraniss (2012), p. 160–163.
- ^ Scott (2011), pp. 87–93.
- Jacobs (2011), pp. 115–118, 125–127, 133–161.
- Maraniss (2012), pp. 170–183, 188–189.
- ^ Scott (2011), pp. 142–144.
- Jacobs (2011), pp. 161–177, 227–230.
- Maraniss (2012), pp. 190–194, 201–209, 227–230.
- ^ Ochieng, Philip (November 1, 2004). "From home squared to the US Senate: how Barack Obama was lost and found". The EastAfrican. Archived from the original on September 27, 2007. Retrieved June 25, 2008.
- Merida, Kevin (December 14, 2007). "The ghost of a father". The Washington Post. p. A12. Retrieved June 25, 2008.
- Jacobs (2011), pp. 251–255.
- Maraniss (2012), pp. 411–417.
- ^ Scott (2011), pp. 97–103.
- Maraniss (2012), pp. 195–201, 225–230.
- ^ Maraniss (2012), pp. 195–201, 209–223, 230–244.
- ^ Maraniss (2012), pp. 216, 221, 230, 234–244.
- ^ Serafin, Peter (March 21, 2004). "Punahou grad stirs up Illinois politics". Honolulu Star-Bulletin. Retrieved March 20, 2008.
- Scott, Janny (March 14, 2008). "A free-spirited wanderer who set Obama's path". The New York Times. p. A1. Retrieved November 18, 2011.
- Obama (1995, 2004), Chapters 3 and 4.
- Scott (2012), pp. 131–134.
- Maraniss (2012), pp. 264–269.
- ^ Scott (2011), pp. 139–157.
- Maraniss (2012), pp. 279–281.
- ^ Scott (2011), pp. 157–194.
- Maraniss (2012), pp. 279–281, 324–326.
- ^ Scott (2011), pp. 214, 294, 317–346.
- ^ Serrano, Richard A. (March 11, 2007). "Obama's peers didn't see his angst". Los Angeles Times. p. A20. Retrieved March 13, 2007.
- Obama (1995, 2004), Chapters 4 and 5.
- ^ Reyes, B.J. (February 8, 2007). "Punahou left lasting impression on Obama". Honolulu Star-Bulletin. Retrieved February 10, 2007. "As a teenager, Obama went to parties and sometimes sought out gatherings on military bases or at the University of Hawaii that were mostly attended by blacks."
- ^ Elliott, Philip (November 21, 2007). "Obama gets blunt with N.H. students". The Boston Globe (Associated Press). p. 8A. Retrieved May 18, 2012.
- ^ Karl, Jonathan (May 25, 2012). "Obama and his pot-smoking "choom gang"". ABC News. Retrieved May 25, 2012.
- Obama (1995, 2004), pp. 93–94.
- for analysis of the political impact of the quote and Obama's more recent admission that he smoked marijuana as a teenager ("When I was a kid, I inhaled"), see:
- Seelye, Katharine Q. (October 24, 2006). "Obama offers more variations from the norm". The New York Times. p. A21. Retrieved October 29, 2006.
- Romano, Lois (January 3, 2007). "Effect of Obama's candor remains to be seen". The Washington Post. p. A1. Retrieved January 14, 2007.
- ^ "FRONTLINE The Choice 2012". PBS. October 9, 2012. Retrieved October 29, 2012.
- ^ Hornick, Ed (August 17, 2008). "Obama, McCain talk issues at pastor's forum". CNN. Retrieved May 18, 2012.
- ^ a b Gordon, Larry (January 29, 2007). "Occidental recalls 'Barry' Obama". Los Angeles Times. p. B1. Archived from the original on May 24, 2010. Retrieved May 12, 2010.
- Possley, Maurice (March 30, 2007). "Activism blossomed in college". Chicago Tribune. p. 20. Retrieved May 12, 2010.
- Kovaleski, Serge F. (February 9, 2008). "Old friends say drugs played bit part in Obama's young life". The New York Times. p. A1. Retrieved May 12, 2010.
- Rohter, Larry (April 10, 2008). "Obama says real-life experience trumps rivals' foreign policy credits". The New York Times. p. A18. Retrieved May 12, 2010.
- Goldman, Adam; Tanner, Robert (May 15, 2008). "Old friends recall Obama's years in LA, NYC". USA Today (Associated Press). Retrieved May 12, 2010.
- Helman, Scott (August 25, 2008). "Small college awakened future senator to service (subscription archive)". The Boston Globe. p. 1A. Retrieved May 12, 2010.
- Jackson, Brooks (June 5, 2009). "More 'birther' nonsense: Obama's 1981 Pakistan trip". FactCheck.org. Retrieved May 12, 2010.
- Remnick, David (2010). The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. pp. 98–112. ISBN 978-1-4000-4360-6.
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- Robinson, Mike (June 4, 2008). "Rezko found guilty in corruption case". Associated Press. msnbc.com. Archived from the original on June 7, 2008. Retrieved June 24, 2008.
- ^ Harris, Marlys (December 7, 2007). "Obama's Money". CNNMoney.com. Archived from the original on April 24, 2008. Retrieved April 28, 2008.
See also:Goldfarb, Zachary A (March 24, 2007). "Measuring Wealth of the '08 Candidates". The Washington Post. Retrieved April 28, 2008. - ^ Zeleny, Jeff (April 17, 2008). "Book Sales Lifted Obamas' Income in 2007 to a Total of $4.2 Million". The New York Times. Archived from the original on April 20, 2008. Retrieved April 28, 2008.
- ^ Shear, Michael D.; Hilzenrath, David S. (April 16, 2010). "Obamas report $5.5 million in income on 2009 tax return". The Washington Post. Retrieved December 22, 2010.
- ^ Solman, Paul (April 18, 2011). "How Much Did President Obama Make in 2010?". PBS NewsHour. Retrieved January 27, 2012.
- ^ Solman, Paul (April 27, 2011). "The Obamas Gave $131,000 to Fisher House Foundation in 2010; What Is It?". PBS NewsHour. Retrieved January 27, 2012.
- ^ Wolf, Richard (May 16, 2012). "Obama worth as much as $10 million". USA Today. Retrieved 16 June 2012.
- ^ Elsner, Alan (December 7, 2008). Obama says he won't be smoking in White House". Reuters. Retrieved February 28, 2010.
- ^ Zengerle, Patricia (February 8, 2011). "Yes, he did: first lady says Obama quit smoking". Reuters. Retrieved May 9, 2011.
- ^ Christianity Today: "Q&A: Barack Obama" Interview by Sarah Pulliam and Ted Olsen, January 23, 2008.
- ^ Obama 'Christian By Choice': President Responds To Questioner by Charles Babington and Darlene Superville, Associated Press, September 28, 2010
- ^ Video – President Obama: "I am a Christian By Choice" by ABC News, September 29, 2010.
- ^ Kantor, Jodi (April 30, 2007). "Barack Obama's search for faith". The New York Times. Retrieved April 30, 2007.
- ^ "Obama's church choice likely to be scrutinized". Associated Press. msnbc.com. November 17, 2008. Retrieved January 20, 2009.
- ^ Sullivan, Amy (June 29, 2009). "The Obamas Find a Church Home—Away from Home". Time. Retrieved December 14, 2009.
References
- Jacobs, Sally H. (2011). The Other Barack: The Bold and Reckless Life of President Obama's Father. New York: PublicAffairs. ISBN 978-1-58648-793-5.
- Maraniss, David (2012). Barack Obama: The Story. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-1-4391-6040-4.
- Mendell, David (2007). Obama: From Promise to Power. New York: Amistad/HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-085820-9.
- Obama, Barack (1995, 2004). Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance. New York: Three Rivers Press. ISBN 978-1-4000-8277-3.
- Obama, Barack (2006). The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream. New York: Crown Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-307-23769-9.
- Scott, Janny (2011). A Singular Woman: The Untold Story of Barack Obama's Mother. New York: Riverhead Books. ISBN 978-1-59448-797-2.
Further reading
- Graff, Garrett. "The Legend of Barack Obama", Washingtonian, November 1, 2006. Retrieved January 14, 2008.
- Koltun, Dave (2005) "The 2004 Illinois Senate Race: Obama Wins Open Seat and Becomes National Political "Star"" in "The Road to Congress 2004" Editors: Sunil Ahuja (Youngstown State University) and Robert Dewhirst (Truman State University), Nova Science Publishers, Hauppauge, New York, 2005, ISBN 1-59454-360-7
- Lizza, Ryan. "Above the Fray", GQ, September 2007. Retrieved October 27, 2010.
- MacFarquhar, Larissa. "The Conciliator: Where is Barack Obama Coming From?", The New Yorker, May 7, 2007. Retrieved January 14, 2008.
- McClelland, Edward, Young Mr. Obama: Chicago and the Making of a Black President, Bloomsbury Press, 2010.
- Zutter, Hank De. "What Makes Obama Run?", Chicago Reader, December 8, 1995. Retrieved January 14, 2008.
External links
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Official
- President Barack Obama White House official website
- BarackObama.com (official re-election campaign website)
Other
- Background and collected news at The Washington Post
- Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
- Voting record maintained by The Washington Post
- Biography, voting record, and interest group ratings at Project Vote Smart
- Congressional profile at GovTrack
- Issue positions and quotes at On the Issues
- Financial information at OpenSecrets.org
- Staff salaries, trips and personal finance at LegiStorm.com
- Campaign finance reports and data at the Federal Election Commission
- Campaign contributions at the National Institute for Money in State Politics
- Appearances on C-SPAN programs
- Appearances on Charlie Rose
- Appearances at the Internet Movie Database
- Collected news and commentary at The New York Times
- Collected news and commentary at The Wall Street Journal
- Collected news and commentary at The Guardian
- Works by or about Barack Obama in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
- Collected news and commentary at the Chicago Tribune
- Barack Obama at the Open Directory Project
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