[Bret L]

Israel Lobby Routs Obama As Dollar Dies

By Paul Craig Roberts

"It did not take the Israel Lobby long to make mincemeat out of the Obama administration’s "no new settlements" position. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu is bragging about Israel’s latest victory over the US government as Israel continues to build illegal settlements on occupied Palestinian land.

In May President Obama read the Israelis the riot act, telling the
Israeli government that he was serious about ending the Israeli
conflict with the Palestinians and that a lasting peace agreement
required the Israeli government to abandon all construction of new
settlements in the occupied West Bank.

On November 10 Obama’s White House chief of staff, Rahm Israel
Emanuel, surrendered for his boss at the annual conference of the
United Jewish Communities.

The ongoing Israeli settlements, he said, should not be a
"distraction" to a peace agreement.

Allegedly, the US is a superpower and Israel is a client state whose
very existence depends entirely on US military and economic aid and
diplomatic protection. Yet, in the real world it works the other
way. Israel is the superpower and the US is its client state.

This true fact is proved to us at least once every week and sometimes
two or three times in one week. A few days, ago the US House of
Representatives voted 344 to 36 in favor of disavowing the UN report
by the distinguished Jewish judge Richard Goldstone that found that
Israel had committed war crimes in its attack on the civilian
population in the Gaza Ghetto. The Israel Lobby demanded that the
House repudiate the fact-filled report, and the servile House did as
its master ordered.

US Rep. Dennis Kucinich spoke to his colleagues for 2 minutes in an
effort to make them see that their vote against the Goldstone report
would be a great embarrassment to the US government and demean the
House in the eyes of the world.

But none of that matters when Israel gives its servants an order. The
US House of Representatives preferred to demean itself and to
embarrass the US Government rather than to cross the Israel Lobby.

Retribution quickly fell upon Kucinich for his 2 minute speech. On
November 9, Kucinich was forced to withdraw as the keynote speaker for
the Palm Beach County (Florida) Democratic Party’s annual fundraising
dinner. The Israel Lobby gave the order—dump Kucinich or there’s no
money and no one is coming to the dinner. County Commissioner Burt
Aaronson called Kucinich "an absolute horror."

Kucinich is the rare Democrat who stands up for his party’s
principles, the working class, and tried to get health care for those
Americans the corporations have thrown out on the street. But helping
Americans doesn’t count. Israel über alles.

Meanwhile, the US dollar continues to decline relative to other traded
currencies. Since spring, anyone could have made a double-digit rate
of return betting on most any currency against the US dollar.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) recently expressed concern that
despite the dollar’s continuing slide, it might still be over-valued.
The Federal Reserve’s low interest rate policy encourages speculators
to use the dollar for the "carry trade." Speculators, whether
individuals or financial institutions borrow dollars at rock bottom
interest rates and use the almost free capital to purchase higher
yielding instruments in other countries. The demand for dollars to
finance the "carry trade" keeps the dollar higher than it would
otherwise be.

Last year it was the Japanese Yen that was used for the "carry trade"
due to the practically zero Japanese interest rates. The next scare
that unwinds the "carry trade" will cause another big drop in
financial asset values. This means that the stock market is very
volatile. It is based on speculation, not on fundamentals.

When the "carry trade" next unwinds, the demand for US dollars to pay
off the loans will temporarily boost the dollar. But don’t be
fooled. The large US trade and budget deficits are the dollar’s death
warrant.

When the dollar finally goes, so will the government’s ability to
conduct wars of aggression, underwrite Israel, finance its red ink and
pay for imports. That’s when the printing press will really get
going."