On Renewed Use of Nuclear Energy
– US Energy Bill Backs Nuclear Energy (Financial Times – October 1, 2009)
– Obama In Nuclear Energy Push (Financial Times – February 16, 2010)
– US Energy Chief Struggles To Shift Debate (Financial Times – February 17, 2010)
– US Nuclear Power Plans Hit By Waste Dispute (Financial Times – May 14, 2010)
Gulf Oil Spill and British Petroleum
(Note: I will post a number of articles on the current crisis with the Gulf Oil Spill….The first of these is a series of episodes from Democracy Now! which have appeared over the past weeks. Others will follow in the next few days. rjp)
– Democracy Now! episodes on the Gulf Oil Spill
– How Big Oil Bought The Secretary of the Interior
– A Spreading Stain – The BP Oil Spill (Financial Times – May 6, 2010)
Ahab and Moby Dick
– Daily Show (May 13, 2010) – First Segment
– US Said To Allow Drilling Without Permits (NY Times – May 14, 2010)
– Size Of Oil Spill Underestimated Scientists Say (NY Times – May 14, 2010)
– Cousteau Jr. This Is A Nightmare, A Nightmare – (Yahoo News – May 26, 2010) Note – it starts with an advertisement but be patient – the news item will follow. Very disturbing.
– Financial Times Series on the Gulf Oil Spill – a series of articles over the past few weeks (from May 30, 2010 back). Useful
– Years of Internal BP Probes Warned That Neglect Could Lead To Accidents (Jun3, 7, 2010) – Excellent investigative reporting on BP over the past 11 years. Also included important BP internal documents.
– Devastating BP Oil Spill Was Inevitable As Government Failed To Learn From Past Tragedies. (New York Daily News. June 11, 2010) by Juan Gonzalez.
– The Ahab Parallax – A piece from the New York Times `Week In Review’ (June 13, 2010) comparing the current Gulf Oil Spill with the theme of Moby Dick. Well done and worth the read
– The Spill, The Scandal And The President – (Rolling Stone – June 24, 2010 by Tim Dickinson) – This article is, unfortunately, excellent. It has alot of information on the role of Ken Salazar, former attorney general and US Senator from Colorado. Although not mentioned by name in this article, Salazar has long had close – if not intimate ties with Norm Brownstein and Steve Farber, Denver lawyers and power brokers. Their law firm, among other things, lobbies for oil and gas deregulation both nationally and in Colorado.
– Mine Workers Union and Families Sue To Open Federal Probe Into Deadly Massey Coal Mine Explosion – While our eyes – and that of the world – are riveted on the unending pollution to the Gulf of Mexico caused by the BP oil disaster – calling it a spill somehow doesn’t capture the extent of the damage – take a look and see how years of deregulation have affected US coal mining.
– Gulf of Mexico Has Long Been Dumping Site (New York Times – July 30, 2010) – This is an excellent `background’ piece. Gives background on other oil spills and forms of pollution (massive dumping of WW2 weapons, among them) into the Gulf before the BP oil spill. Gives an interesting perspective on why it wasn’t the wise thing – even before the BP Gulf oil spill – to go swimming in the Gulf…
(other film reviews:
Oldies But Goodies – Film Reviews – Zinneman, Fuller, Imamura )
STARZ – the Denver Film Festival that just celebrated its 30th anniversary – occasionally does issue oriented short film festivals to compliment `the big one’ done each October. This year they are putting on a `Human Rights Watch Film Festival’ (May 20-26) at the Tivoli Theater on the Auraria Campus in downtown Denver, with the films chosen by the national human rights organization, Human Rights Watch. The line up looks promising and includes `The Reckoning: The Battle for the International Criminal Court’‘, `Mrs. Goundo’s Daughter, `Remnants of War”, `Back Home Tomorrow’, `Tapologo’, `Youth Producing Change Short Films’ and `Look Into My Eyes. (For descriptions of each, click on the specific title). Overall it is a very strong program with films from all over the world that deal with different aspects of the series of global human rights tragedies the world will have to face for some time in the future. I intend to see as many of the festival, and to see as many of the films as I can manage to work into my schedule. Read more…
Silverado 8 – Larry Mizel and Spencer Browne
March of 1991 was not an especially good time for Larry Mizel and MDC Holdings, Inc. In fact both Mizel and closest associates at MDC were, to put it somewhat inelegantly, knee deep in their own shit.
- Federal and state investigators were nipping at their heels; there were Congressional hearings taking place.
- MDC was the subject of separate investigations by the Denver Election Commission and FBI over allegations of laundering campaign contributions to different local, state and national political candidates.
- Add to that, Colorado Governor Roy Romer had also ordered a state investigation of MDC’s (along with Silverado’s) political fund-raising activities. As a result Mizel was being investigated by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation. He was lucky – or perhaps it was not simply luck – that a state grand jury had not been called to delve into the matter
- Officers of Silverado, including the bank’s president and CEO were facing possible indictments as was Neil Bush, Silverado board member and son of the then-sitting President George (the elder) Bush
- The shyster developers who had absconded with tens – if not hundreds – of millions of dollars in Silverado toxic loans had scattered to the winds. Gary Talley was hiding out in Arizona, Ken Good had moved on to Florida and soon thereafter to Texas, Bill Walters was now working Southern California and Las Vega. Richard Rossmiller, Silverado’s largest borrower, was facing legal challenges in a number of states. He would soon be indicted and convicted to four years in a federal penitentiary in association with loans taken from a Pennsylvania savings and loan – Hill Savings and Loan Read more…
Savings and Loan Debacle Articles/Bibliography
(Note – I will build this particular entry over time with a serious of articles, books and now videos on the S&L crisis of the 1980s. It will take a while and therefore you might come back to the site every once in a while to see how it’s been updated.
The idea is to provide insights into how that financial crisis/scandal came about, what were the major themes and consequences. The S&L crisis is not exactly like the current sub-prime mess, but there are many parallels. In its day, the S&L scandal was the biggest financial scandal in US history costing tax payers somewhere – it has never been fully determined – between $500 million to $1 billion +. Since then, the more recent crises have dwarfed the S&L debacle so that in comparison with what is going on today, that scandal is small potatoes.
If we think of the financial industry as a kind of commodity chain – from `producers’ to `consumers’ so to speak – the S&L scandal was located most specifically among `the producers’ – the banks, regulators, property assessors, shyster lawyers who helped frame the legal framework, etc. The sub-prime crisis involves more directly `consumers’ down the chain.
Anyway, I’ll start putting up articles and readers can compare those distant events with the current ones.)
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Collapse of the Savings And Loans Association – I thank Dr. Thayer Davis, who posted this on San Jose State University Economics Department website for this particular entry which depends heavily on Martin Mayer’s excellent The Greatest Ever Bank Robbery: The Collapse of the Savings and Loan Industry
Silverado – Ch 3 Wilmsem by Steven Wilmsen – This is a chapter from Wilmsen’s thin volume on the subject. For those particularly interested in the `Silverado’ story, the whole book is worth reading. The Silverado story, in parts is covered in other books as well, usually just a few pages. Will cite some of those sources later.
Too Big To Jail? Executives Unscathed As Regulators Let Banks Report Criminal Fraud – This piece compares indictments during the S&L scandal with those of the current financial crisis. It overstates how many big wigs got indicted and prosecuted in the S&L scandal. Other than Keating and Milken, most of the big fish, including those in Colorado, got away clean. Still it is an interesting and worthwhile piece.
The Prince Silverado Series
1. Silverado 1 – The Michael R. Wise Legacy To Colorado Banking
2. Silverado 2 – Kermit Mowbray – From Federal Bank Regulator to New Mexico Bird Watcher
3. Silverado 3 – Ken Good – (part one) Son of a Kansas Itinerant Methodist Minister
4. Silverado 3a – Ken Good – (part two) Son of a Kansas Itinerant Methodist Minister
5. Silverado 4 – Larry Mizel – Silverado Linked Developer Turned Philanthropist
6. Silverado 4a. – Larry Mizel – Silverado Linked Developer Turned Philanthropist and `The CELL’
7. Silverado 5 – Silverado: The Sequel. The Failure of New Frontier Bank of Greeley
8. Silverado 6 – More on the Failure of New Frontier Bank of Greeley
9. Silverado 7 – Matsch – Daughter Killed in Hawaii
10. Silverado 8 – Larry Mizel and Spencer Browne
Why Economic Sanctions Against Iran Will Fail by Juan Cole
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(note – this piece is well done. U.S. foreign policy today is based in large measure of trying to stop Iran from emerging as a regional power in the Middle East economically and politically, and in the more long term, challenging China’s rise to power. The Iran sanctions campaign is also an attempt to split the Middle East countries in such a way (deepening the Shi’ite – Sunni split) so as to keep the region permanently divided and thus more easily manageable. The anti-Iranian campaign is an attempt to mobilize US allies in conflict with each other (Saudis-Israelis) into one common front. There is more to it than this, but let’s let Juan Cole explain why sanctions don’t and won’t work – rjp)
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Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Adm. Mike Mullen said at Columbia U. that a military strike on
Dr. Mohammad Mossadegh
Iran over its nuclear enrichment activities would be his ‘last option.’ He makes an excellent point, too often overlooked. In some instances the price of doing something is just about as high as the price of doing nothing. A US strike on Iran would risk throwing Iraq and Afghanistan into chao, with our troops in the midst of it.
The Obama administration is now moving tighten economic sanctions on Iran, as an alternative to a more direct approach. These measures include pressuring countries and firms not to buy Iranian petroleum and gas; pressuring them not to sell gasoline to Iran; and attempting to make it difficult for Iranian banks to interface with the world economic system.
While these measures could impose costs on Iran, these costs can easily be borne by the country, and more especially by the regime. for the entire article click here.
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Erin Toll And The Gutting Of Regulation by Allyn Cooper
The above story appeared on the `Colorado Pol’ website last month. Worth the read
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It concerns the dismissal of Erin Toll, former Director of the Colorado Real Estate Division,
who had been too conscientious in her job of regulating mortgage fraud. A Republican appointed
Erin Toll
by former Governor Bill Owen, Toll took her job seriously. One of her investigations concluded that fellow Republican legislator, State Senator Ted Harvey, a Highlands Ranch Republican, also just happened to be employed as a mortgage broker for American Home Funding, a company that was being investigated by Toll’s office. American Home Funding and Harvey hired a `powerful local law firm’… hmmm. Wonder who that could be? Not only was Ms. Toll fired by her immediate superviser, Barbara Kelley, quashed Toll’s investigation into Harvey’s firm.
Toll’s firing was deemed important enough to merit national coverage both in Business Week and MSN Money.
Toll was not afraid to take on the real estate – developer lobby, one of Colorado’s strongest. That lobby, through the good services of two local legislators, Mark Scheffle and Shawn Mitchell – one of the state’s up and coming neo-cons – were able to amend the bill in such a way as to essentially gut it. This was done with no Democratic opposition despite the fact that the Dems control the state legislature.
- Scheffle’s amendment strips the Director of all the rulemaking, enforcement, and administrative authority over mortgage brokers and placces it in the hands of a seven member board – five of which are required to be mortgage brokers.
- Mitchell’s contribution to transparency requires that complaints and investigations be closed to public inspection (currently they may be closed at the discretion of the Director)
But why stop there? There are some indications that the real estate lobby will not stop by merely toppling Toll but hope to eliminate the entire agency, the Colorado Real Estate Division, that she headed. So much for improved real estate regulation in the state that brought the nation the Silverado scandal of the 1980s.
It is virtually impossible that Toll could have lost her job without the approval or at least agreement of outgoing Governor Bill Ritter. If this is the case, it is yet one more cynical acts in what has been one of the more mediocre Colorado governorships in recent memory. One has to wonder who lobbied him to approve Toll’s dismissal… and what law firm he will wind up working for when he leaves office. Read more…
To link directly with Alan Gilbert’s Blog Entry on this click here
SODEXO workers protesting in Washington DC as a part of the national action
(Note: Yesterday – April 15, 2010 – I attended an event organized by University of Denver students in support of university employees of SODEXO, the multi-national corporation that has the concessions contract at the university. As a part of a national effort, DU’s SODEXO workers have been trying to unionize. The company refuses to even meet with the union despite numerous attempts to do so on the part of the Service Employees International Union – SEIU. The University claims to be `neutral’ in the controversy between SODEXO and the SEIU, which essentially means that they will not lift a finger to help SODEXO employees unionize and get improved salaries and working conditions.
Faced with this impass, SEIU, in conjunction with some student groups led a rally on campus yesterday in support of the SODEXO workers. The rally essentially protested the low wages and punishing working conditions of the SODEXO workers and called upon the university to use its influence to `encourage’ SODEXO to negotiate with the union, which it refuses to do to date. Several state legislators, a city councilman and a minister joined student and union organizers in this protest rally. University of Denver faculty participation was … rather thin. there were three of us, all from the Korbel School of International Studies. The University of Denver protest was one of many protests nationwide targeting SODEXO. Photo at right is from Washington DC.
What follows below is colleague Alan Gilbert’s description of the rally and the controversy. Well done Alan!. The pictures are mine – RJP
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Post By Alan Gilbert..
Yesterday I (Alan G) got three email messages from students and colleagues and a flier in my box for the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) burial of the coffin for “Worker’s Justice” at 5 o’clock at the University of Denver. The University subcontracts with Sodexo to manage its campus cafeterias and coffee shops. Demonstrations, acts of civil disobedience and strikes took place in 11 states yesterday including Sodexo’s headquarters in Gaithersburg, Maryland. These were part of an effort to organize a novel, genuinely international union to counter Sodexo’s abuses in Europe and Latin America as well as the United States (British and French union representatives attended as well as Danny Glover, long an activist for decency). Currently, SEIU has filed 12 unfair labor practices charges with the National Labor Relations Board. Sodexo has practiced “intimidation, interrogation, surveillance” and firing in response. Sodexo is the 22nd largest employer in the world, mak
ing more than a billion dollars profit in 2009. A brave new world is before us even in the cafeterias of the University of Denver. Read more…
Three Pieces on Israel-Palestine
Now Krygyzstan – The Wilting Tulip
(related articles…
1. Eric Wahlberg `Kyrgyzstan: Another Color Revolution Bites The Dust’
2. BBC articles and video on the current crisis in Kyrgyzstan
3. Rick Rozoff `Kazakhstan: U.S., NATO Seek Military Outpost Between Russia and China’
4. Coup In Kygyrstan, Drugs from Afghanistan and US
5. US Air Base Linked to US Tolerance of Corrupt Kyrgyz Government
6. Vicker Cheterian `Kyrgyzstan Failing and an Arc of Crisis’
6. Paul Quinn-Judd `Kyrgyzstan: Saving Central Asia
7. US Opening Second Base in Kyrgyzstan (Aug. 10, 2010) interview with Rick Rozoff on `Russia Today – USA’
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Manas Air Force Base: Grand Central Station for U.S. Troops Coming and Going Through Afghanistan
According to a CNN report yesterday (April 10, 2010) picked up by
Rick Rozoff of `Stop Nato’, about 1,300 U.S. troops have been stuck at the Manas airfield in Kyrgyzstan as a result of the revolt against the former regime there, literally overthrown by thousands of angry demonstrators in Bishkek on April 8. Sources inside the country have said that over 100 people have died and another 500 wounded in the uprising against the regime of Kumanbek Bakiyev. The fate of the base – one of the most important US military bases in Central Asia, remains unclear.
A U.S. military spokesman, who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the security situation, said US troops have been unable to move because of the suspension of U.S. military operations at the airfield. The stranded troops include those coming home from Afghanistan and others going into the war zone. The spokesman said it is not known when the airfield will reopen and it is not yet certain how the troops will be moved out. In any case, the events have thrown the Obama Administration into something approaching a panic over the fate of Manas.
Obama now finds himself in the interesting position of having to go begging to Moscow to help maintain the US base rights. Interestingly, at the same time Washington is somewhat desperately hoping to hold on to its Manas base, already there are reports that negotiations are underway with Kazakhstan to open an air base there should the Manas arrangement fall through. Still, while a possible alternatie, Kazakhstan is not considered the most viable option. In 2008, an Office of the Inspector General report on U.S. operations in Kyrgyzstan said in relation to Manas that “it would be much more expensive to support coalition operations from another venue.” As a result, it concluded that the then annual cost of U.S. programs in Kyrgyzstan (about $150 million) was “money well spent.” Operating the base from Kazakhstan would not be the same thing. Read more…
Farhat Hached And The Struggle For Tunisian Independence – 3; 1952 Tunisia’s Year Of Agony
Previous entries…
Ben Barka, Lumumba and Hached – Gone But Not Forgotten
Farhat Hached and the Struggle For Tunisian Independence – 2
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1952 – Tunisia’s Year of Agony
(this is a translation from French of a commentary on the Toulon League of Human Rights website about the situation in Tunisian 1952, the year that Farhat Hached was assassinated. See the note and commentary below the translation)
By the year 1952 Tunisia found itself in the grips of French protectorate imposed by France through military conquest, the parameters of which were defined by the May 12, 1881 Treaty of Kasr Said, further elaborated by the La Marsa Convention of June 8, 1883. Under the cover of legislation defining France as `state protector’ and Tunisia as a `protected territory’, the de facto relationship between France and Tunisia at that time could that of occupier and occupied. Tunisia’s `military security’ was `provided’ by France. France dominated Tunisia legislatively, administratively and judicially, including overseeing that portion of the indigenous legal structure left in tact by France. Read more…
Farhat Hached and the Struggle for Tunisian Independence
(originally published on December 31, 2009; revised, updated on March 29, 2010, April 10, 2010)
related websites:
Section Toulon of La Ligue des Droits Humaines (The Toulon [France]Chapter of the Human Rights League)
Part One: Ben Barka, Lumumba, Hached – Gone But Not Forgotten Part One:
Citoyens des Deux Rives (in French)
La Tunisie n’est devenue independante que sout la pression des fellaghas (in French)
L’assassinat de Farhat Hached ou le crime impuni (in French) by Juliette Bessis
Part two of a series on Farhat Hached, Tunisian Trade Union and Independence Leader…
Farhat Hached (1)
Some 8 years ago there was much activity in Tunisia and among the Tunisian Community in France, remembering Farhat Hached. 2002 marked the 50th anniversary of his assassination. Long after his death, Hached’s memory remains alive in Sousse where there is both a `Place Farhad Hached’ and a hospital named for him, a soccer stadium on his home island, Kerkennah just to name a few of the memorials left to commemorate his life. A few years before 2002, several books, memoirs and articles had appeared fingering the French authorities; in one case, someone who claimed to be a part of the `hit man’ team, admitted to involvement in the crime.
Hached’s wife and one of her sons appealed to the French government to release documents relevant to his death, but to no avail until now. Having received no response, on March 16, 2010, less than a month ago, the family along with several human rights organization formally lodged a complaint at the Tribunal de Grande Instance (Supreme Court of France for Civil Matters) in Paris asking the French government for `an apology for war crimes’. According to Houcine Bardi, representing the family and Patrick Baudoin, attorney representing the Federation Internationale des Ligues des Droits de l’Homme the Geneva Convention applies because the facts are, if not based upon a war sitution, that of an `armed conflict’. The case is currently being considered.
Some Articles on the Financial Crisis
(Updated on April 4, 2010, again on April 14, 2010, July 24, 2010 and November 10, 2010)
1. `A Business Decision’ – As America’s home prices continue to fall, mortgage holders confronted by negative equity are handing back the keys in despair, even though they can afford the repayments’ (Financial Times – Feb 23, 2010)
2. `More Pain To Come Even If He’s Perfect’ – article by Joseph Stiglitz on the current financial crisis written a few months ago (Washington Post – Nov 6, 2009)
3. `Left Business Observer” – I think it’s a pretty fine newsletter with much information. Requires a subscription but there are some articles on the website. If you go to this link, scroll down a bit and there is a good piece – `How To Learn Nothing From Crisis’.
4. `Reflections on Glass-Steagall and Maniacal Deregulation’ – Good piece by Robert Weissman on the historic Glass-Steagall Act of 1932 (and 3) and the impact on its repeal during the Clinton Years, giving deregulation even more momentum than existed in the Reagan Era
5. `Obama, Lehman and the Dragon Tattoo’ by Frank Rich – Interesting piece from the NY Times (March 20, 2010) that weaves some comments about the financial crisis with The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo By Stieg Larsson, a book my book club read recently, worth reading.
6. `Executive Compensation And Economic Crisis‘ – This piece shows how those in great measure directly responsible for the 2008 financial crisis received bonuses for bringing down the US economy. A scholarly piece.
7. Warde – Madoff Gets 150 Years – by Ibrahim Warde. Le Monde Diplomatique. August 2009 – a good piece describing what we know, and what is left to find out about Bernie Madoff’s massive ponzi scheme
8. `Crisis of Credit’ – a short cartoon video giving a nice sense of the elements leading to the `sub-prime’ real estate collapse of 2008
9. `The Best Way To Rob A Bank Is To Own One’ – by Bill Black. A half hour interview with Bill Moyers. Looks at the question `how did they get away with it’.
10. IMF’s `Mid Life Crisis’ – Two Interviews with Dr. Ilene Grabel – This is on `Real News’. Interesting commentaries on how the IMF is trying to `tweek’ its structural adjustment program a bit (concerning capital controls) as it loses credibility in most of the Third World.
11. Review of the documentary `Inside Job’ – a Cannes film festival award winning documentary is reviewed here
12.LBO 126 – Obamancholia– Lead op ed from the May 4, 2010 Left Business Observer. Good overview of a critique of Obama’s (mostly) economic policies from the left.
13. Placing The Blame As Students Are Buried In Debt – NY Times (May 29, 2010) – In a manner not unlike how banks made adjustable mortgage home loans to buyers who could not pay, they give student loans to people without much of an idea how these loans might be paid back after graduation.
14. Three Years On, Fault Lines Threaten The World Economy – Financial Times July 13, 2010 – I find Martin Wolf, who wrote this column, generally worth reading. Here he explores some of the deeper and unresolved aspects of the global financial crisis.
15. New Finance Bill Will Not Prevent Another Crisis: Part One – Real News – July 13, 2010. an interview with William Black, author of `The Best Way To Rob A Bank Is To Own One’ – critiques the finance reform bill
16. New Finance Bill Will Not Prevent Another Crisis: Part Two – Real News – July 14, 2010. an interview with William Black, author of `The Best Way To Rob A Bank Is To Own One’ – critiques the finance reform bill
17. New Finance Bill Will Not Prevent Another Crisis: Part Three – Real News – July 27, 2010. an interview with William Black, author of `The Best Way To Rob A Bank Is To Own One’ – critiques the finance reform bill
18. Ponzi Solidaire – August 1, 2010.. a piece by Immanuel Wallerstein on how it is that profits and unemployment can go up at the same time. Well done
19. Reich Blames Economy Woes On Income Disparity – Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor in the first Clinton Administration (1992-1996) has written a new book `Aftershock: The Next Economy and America’s Future. This link is an interview with him on National Public Radio. You can either read it or listen to it
20. The Crisis of Capitalism in 11 minutes – an animated talk by David Harvey, British Marxist economist. Well done.
21. The Virgin Crisis: Systematically Ignoring Fraud as a Systematic Risk – by William Black. November 8, 2011
22. It Takes a Pillage – Matt Taibbi and Nomi Prins on the financial crisis. How the financial sector got away without any indictments…about 10 minutes
Larry Mizel and the Museum of (In) Tolerance in Jerusalem
Note 1: This entry is updated on February 10, 2010. Today’s edition of `Democracy Now!’ aired a segment on this subject. Palestinian relatives of some of those buried at Jerusalem’s Mamilla Cemetery are going to the United Nations to ask that the project be halted. Here is the link to the segment Democracy Now! . It adds some texture to the piece below firts published on January 24, 2010. There is a Colorado connection – Larry Mizel, Denver developer and now CEO of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles.
Note 2: Updated again on March 22, 2010. Two new items – one from the Mamilla Campaign opposed to the continued construction of the `Museum of Tolerance’ on the site of the Mamilla Cemetery, the second from Haaretz of March 15, 2010 saying that despite the protests, that the construction of the museum will continue. The entry itself was not changed.
Note 3: Updated again on July20,2010. Some historical notes on the Mamilla Cemetery from Jeremy Salt’s The Unmaking of the Middle East
(Related Posts: Nir Barkat, Mayor of Jerusalem Speaks at the University of Denver
Mamilla Cemetery, A Buried History
Silverado 4a – Larry Mizel: Silverado-Linked Developer-Turned Philanthropist and` the CELL‘
Silverado 4 – Larry Mizel: Silverado-Linked Developer-Turned Philanthropist (Intro)
The Mamilla Campaign (from Juan Cole’s March 9 blog)
Work Begins on the Museum of Tolerance Despite Protests (Haaretz – March 15, 2010)
Jeff Halper – RAMADAN KAREEM- From the Netanyahu and Obama Administrations (August 11, 2010)
The shocked and appalled Jerusalemites and members of the Islamic Waqf gathering the scattered bones left by Israeli parking lot workers in Mamilla, the historic cemetery in the western section of Jerusalem (1967). A project in the works for nine years to construct what is formally called a `Museum of Tolerance’ in Jerusalem sponsored by the SimonWiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, has run into problems. According to the museum’s literature, the Jerusalem project seeks to promote `unity and respect’ among Jews and between people of all faiths’. Sounds promising at first, but when asked if the `tolerance’ the museum hopes to promote would include Palestinians, Rabbi Marvin Hier responded that the museum is `not about the experience of the Palestinian people; when they have a state, they’ll have their own museum’. Sounds less promising. Read more…
View from the Left Bank: Rob Prince's Blog 