Hudson New York

Hudson Institute is attempting to encourage civil discourse on important issues of our time. However, the views expressed are not necessarily the opinions shared by those at the institute, but reflect a variety of viewpoints that may be controversial and sometimes provocative.

Latest Articles

1. http://www.hudsonny.org/2010/03/the-euro-we-give-you-cash-you-give-us-corfu.php

   March 11, 2010 5:00 AM
   by Paul Belien

   The Euro: "We Give You Cash, You Give Us Corfu"

   Does the crisis over Greece and the euro mean that the European Union (EU) member states should be brought under central "economic governance"? Yes, say the European institutions and France. No, says Germany, the EU's paymaster who refuses to keep paying the expenses of others.

   The creation of a central "European economic government" is one of the pet projects of French President Sarkozy. On Friday Yves Leterme, the Prime Minister of Belgium, proposed a common Eurozone finance ministry and the creation of a European Debt Agency. "The EDA would take over the existing debt instruments and issue new ones," he said. Belgium is often used as a spokesperson by France, one of the EU's heavyweights, when Paris wants to launch new ideas.

   Chancellor Merkel, however, is reluctant to "integrate" Germany's economic policies under centralized EU governance. For many Germans the lesson from the current euro crisis is that it was wrong to give up Germany's monetary instruments and exchange the Deutsche Mark for a common currency with countries such as Greece, Portugal and Spain. Contrary to Messrs. Barroso, Sarkozy, Van Rompuy and Leterme, the Germans do not see the Greek crisis as an argument for more European economic centralization, but rather the opposite.

   Chancellor Merkel is confronted with a public opinion that is unwilling to pay the debts of other countries out of "solidarity." The Germans are exasperated with the Greeks. When Greece joined the eurozone in 1999, it had to promise to adhere to the EU's budget rules. It failed to do so, but covered this up, falsifying the official figures which it submitted to the EU. A recent re-examination of the Greek budget reports shows that Athens has not met the standards in any year except 2006.

   Last Thursday, Greece managed to borrow €5 billion from investors. This was done in ten-year bonds against a high interest of 6.4 percent. The bond issue was oversubscribed, indicating that the markets reacted positively to the Greek austerity plan presented earlier last week. The danger, however, of a bankruptcy of the Greek state, which risks dragging down the euro, the currency which Greece shares with 15 other EU member states - the so-called eurozone - has not been averted. The euro's problems are far from over.

   Greece needs another €15 billion to pay the interest on...

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2. http://www.hudsonny.org/2010/03/baghdad-surprise-maliki-advance-over-allawi-reduced-to-4-seats.php

   March 11, 2010 4:30 AM
   by Pierre Akel

   Baghdad Surprise: Maliki Advance Over Allawi Reduced to 4 Seats

   US sources in Baghdad revealed to our Baghdad correspondent that the difference between the number of seats obtained by the list headed by PM Nouri el Maliki and those obtained by his nearest competitor, Iyad Allawi, has been reduced to 4 or 5 seats only. M. Nouri el Maliki shall obtain a maximum of 86 seats in Iraq's coming parliament while Iyad Allawi shall be at the head of a group of around 82 deputies.

   The list of the Supreme Council headed by Ammar el Hakim is expected to obtain 45 seats, while the Kurds shall total 62 to 65 seats.

   In detail, and from US sources:

   In Mosul: Maliki 0, Allawi 21 seats

   In Anbar:

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3. http://www.hudsonny.org/2010/03/the-female-jihad-1.php

   March 10, 2010 5:00 AM
   by Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens

   The Female Jihad

   As the United States and Europe have slowly come to terms with the grim reality of the Islamist terror threat, comment and analysis on how to deal with it have almost invariably concentrated on angry young males. What has frequently been overlooked is the role played by females on the peripheries of many terror plots in the West. Their involvement has ranged from encouraging their jihadi relatives, ensuring that their will to carry out the operation remains strong until the end, to withholding information from the authorities. Although the West has yet to see its first female suicide bomber, recent developments suggest that such an incident is likely, perhaps even inevitable.

   Osama bin Laden prescribed a role for women in jihad in his 1996 declaration of war against America and its allies:

   Our women had set a tremendous example for generosity in the cause of Allah; they motivate and encourage their sons, brothers and husbands to fight for

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4. http://www.hudsonny.org/2010/03/the-european-lobby-in-israel.php

   March 10, 2010 4:30 AM
   by Seth J. Frantzman

   The European Lobby in Israel

   The EU, realizing it cannot get Israel to change its laws through diplomatic means, has resorted to creating an internal lobby - through lavish funding of NGOs -- to get Israel to bend.

   Ever since the publication of John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt's The Israel Lobby there has been much talk of the "lobby." In England mainstream and respectable Channel 4 aired an entire program entitled Inside Britain's Israel Lobby which claimed the "lobby" "owns" the Conservative Party. Amidst all the talk of an Israel lobby in the West, people have ignored the growth of a lobby located in the Holy Land itself, the European lobby in Israel.

   The European Parliament adopted the European Initiative for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR) in 1994. This was part of the European Union's broader belief that "democracy and human rights are universal values that should be vigorously promoted around the world." The initiative was supposed to promote democratization through the promotion of "fair and free" elections and mainstreaming "democratic values" through "accountability, transparency and equality."

   In 2007, a subtle change in the name of the EIDHR was made. The word "initiative" was changed to "instrument." This seemingly banal change may be a result of semantic arguments among EU staffers but it puts in words the increasingly meddlesome way the EU has chosen to work within Israel.

   The EU may have realized...

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5. http://www.hudsonny.org/2010/03/for-israels-arabs-it-is-not-apartheid.php

   March 9, 2010 5:00 AM
   by Khaled Abu Toameh

   For Israel's Arabs It Is Not Apartheid

   An Arab member of the Knesset who goes all the way to the US and Canada to tell university students and professors that Israel is an apartheid state is not only a hypocrite and a liar, but is also causing huge damage to the interests of his own Arab voters and constituents.

   If Israel were an apartheid state, what is this Arab doing in the Knesset? Doesn't apartheid mean that someone like this Knesset member would not, in the first place, even be permitted to run in an election?

   Fortunately, Arab citizens can go to the same beaches, restaurants and shopping malls as Jews in this "apartheid" state. Moreover, they can run in any election and even have a minister in the government [Ghaleb Majadlah] for the first time.

   In this "apartheid" state, the Arab community has a free media that many Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip envy. Ironically, an Arab newspaper in Nazareth or Haifa that is licensed by Israel enjoys more freedom than the media controlled by Hamas and Fatah, as well as most corrupt Arab dictatorships.

   Ironically, this Knesset member who is complaining about apartheid enjoys more privileges than most Jews and Arabs in Israel. As a parliamentarian, he is entitled to do many things that an ordinary citizen cannot do, thanks largely to the immunity he enjoys as an elected official.

   His parliamentary immunity allows him to enter areas that ordinary Jewish and Arab citizens do not have access to. This Knesset member, for example, travels to the Palestinian Authority-controlled territories which, for many years, have been off-limits to ordinary Israeli citizens.

   This Knesset member also can sometimes even break the law by visiting "hostile" countries like Syria and Lebanon and holding public meetings with Hamas and Hizbullah leaders.

   True, the Arab community inside Israel has long been facing real problems that need to be dealt with urgently. The main problem was and remains discrimination by the establishment, especially when it comes to employment, infrastructure and allocation of public funds and lands.

   Nonetheless, the Arab citizens are not struggling for separation from Israel. Rather, they are fighting for...

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6. http://www.hudsonny.org/2010/03/spain-co-who-teaches-anti-semitism-to-kids.php

   March 9, 2010 4:40 AM
   by Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury

   Spain & Co.: Who Teaches Anti-Semitism to Kids?

   Israel's ambassador in Spain, Rafi Shotz, received dozens of postcards -- hand-written, with messages such as "Jews kill for money," "Evacuate the country for Palestinians," and "Go to someplace where someone will be willing to accept you."

   Israel's foreign ministry officials told the Israeli daily, Ha'aretz, that the handwriting appears typical of children six to nine years old.

   "Apparently there are anti-Semitic and anti-Israel individuals who get permission to operate within schools," the official said. "Each time, the embassy has received several dozen postcards from a different school. And it seems as though whoever is doing this is moving from school to school."

   Israeli government lodged a formal complaint with Spain on February 28, charging that anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism are being instilled in elementary students across parts of the country.

   According to sources in the Foreign Ministry, this is an organized campaign by officials outside the education system in Spain who have been given permission to...

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7. http://www.hudsonny.org/2010/03/the-trouble-with-deterrence-three-scenarios.php

   March 9, 2010 4:30 AM
   by William Katz

   THE TROUBLE WITH DETERRENCE: THREE SCENARIOS

   Unless conditions change drastically, Iran will have the atomic bomb. Maybe sooner, maybe later, but the Iranians will have it.

   It doesn't matter, say some analysts. Iran can be deterred, as was the Soviet Union. Some say it might even be easier to deter Iran as the Soviets had a vastly greater military capability. The trouble with this argument is that rests on assumptions about deterrence as old as the concept itself, assumptions that often don't hold up.

   Let's assume that the Iranians are completely rational. Under the theory of deterrence, this would mean they'd never use nuclear weapons out of fear that the United States would retaliate and destroy Iran.

   But would we? Consider this scenario:

   The likeliest Iranian target is Israel. If Iran used nuclear weapons against Israel,

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