Tuesday, April 16 2002 @ 04:46 PM GMT
By Sultan is good, just his viziers are evil, - this thought comforted
many an unhappy subject through human history. Unhappy as we are, we
comforted ourselves with vain hopes of positive American intervention
in Palestine, enforcing the myth of the US as a severe but honest ruler.
As the Deir Yassin Day became Deir Yassin-a-Day, the hopes did not
abate. "A real test of the Bush presidency", wrote Robert Fisk in the
Independent. "No time to waste", seconded Helena Cobban of the Christian
Science Monitor. But the visit of the US Secretary of State provided
no respite for the Palestinians, not even a lull in Israeli onslaught.
Brilliant Norman Finkelstein reminded us: "The problem with the Bush
administration, we are repeatedly told, is that it has been insufficiently
engaged with the Middle East, a diplomatic void Colin Powell's mission
is supposed to fill. But who gave the green light for Israel to commit
the massacres? Who supplied the F-16s and Apache helicopters to Israel?
Who vetoed the Security Council resolutions calling for international
monitors to supervise the reduction of violence? And who just blocked
the proposal of the United Nation's top human rights official, Mary
Robinson, to merely send a fact-finding team to the Palestinian territories?
Consider this scenario. A and B stand accused of murder. The evidence
shows that A provided B with the murder weapon, A gave B the "all-clear"
signal, and A prevented onlookers from answering the victim's screams.
Would the verdict be that A was insufficiently engaged or that A was
every bit as guilty as B of murder?"
He is right. It is time to stop daydreaming about the good sultan.
If a mental block forbids you to doubt his good intentions, you may
think he is a captive of evil eunuchs, as so many rulers were. From
regret and sorrow, we should move into action. After all, the US policies
in the Middle East aren't weather that everybody complains about, but
does nothing about it. But can we do something about it, if demonstrations
and protests are of no avail?
The answer is yes, and it is not a Jihad, neither a Crusade. Robert
Jensen[i] of Texas University wrote, "I helped kill a Palestinian today.
If you pay taxes to the U.S. government, so did you". He implied that
the US taxpayers' money go into rearming Israel and killing Palestinians.
Let Jensen be comforted. The US taxpayer is innocent. The reality is
worse: the slaughter is paid for by us, by five billion people on earth
living outside of the US.
Every day we transfer five billion dollars to the US, in order to keep
this great country's leaders in the style they are accustomed to, and
also to kill as many Palestinians as they find fit. A buck a day, from
each of us, Europeans and Africans, Chinese and Japanese, Russians and
Arabs. These mind-boggling numbers were published by the British weekly,
the Economist. We do it, as since 1972, the US assumed the right to
print as many dollars as they like, while we subscribed to the fiction
that the greenback, a small sheet of paper, is an equivalent of our
labour and of worldly goods.
As a matter of fact, the US dollar has no cover. It is a cheque written
by a bankrupt wastrel, good to be framed and put on the wall. Provided
they issue as many dollars as they need, it is not amazing there is
one superpower and all the rest are in debt. It is not a secret: brave
Fidel Castro tells it at every conference, thus assuring endless hostility
of the US.
The US financial wizards, Greenspan et al, play with us an old trick
of confidence, called a 'pyramid'. Such games were played in many countries,
notably in Albania and Russia, by local tricksters. Usually they end
with a catastrophic crash. The Judeo-American con-game differs by its
size. It is global. Otherwise, it the same pyramid. 90 per cent of all
financial transactions are speculative transactions, writes Noam Chomsky.
The pyramid is supported by a massive propaganda brainwash to encourage
consumption and expansion. Ordinary people of the US and its allies
get no fun out of it: in England, child poverty grew threefold since
Margaret Thatcher came to power. In the US, there are millions of homeless
children. Americans, Brits, Germans are deeply indebted, as the countries
of the Third World.
The US dollar succeeded to replace gold, because it offered an attractive
fixed interest rate. The interest rate has become a honey trap for the
mankind; it has caused the burden of debt, impoverished states and persons,
created the ugly aberration of globalization. Not in vain, Sam Bronfman
the Bootlegger, the founder of the powerful Bronfman dynasty and father
of the World Jewish Congress chairman, when asked what the most important
human invention is, replied without hesitation: 'interest rate'.[ii]
That was the second Fall of Man. Adam was tempted by the apple, we
got tempted by the fixed-rate interest on dollar, the modern equivalent
of old-fashioned usury. In the old days, the 'anti-Semitic' Church condemned
usury as the exclusively Jewish occupation, but now it is free for all.
Everybody is a partner, in the words of Heller's Catch-22 character,
Milo Minderbinder. Yet, there is a catch, Catch-22. You can not take
your winnings and go away to enjoy them. You have to stay in the game.
The US dollar is not 'money' anymore; it is a license, like a Microsoft
license, or a patent by a pharmaceutical company. Whenever the US rulers
decide, they can freeze the assets of a rebel country. Iran had its
assets frozen, Libya, Iraq; surely Saudis will suffer the same fate
the moment they will object to American policies. Here is a good riddle
for Bilbo Baggins: what is overpriced, unsafe, green and greatly desired
by fools?
II
In the last days of the war in South East Asia, I traveled by a slow
junk boat down Mekong River, in the company of fellow-journalists, adventurers,
local peasants, pigs and chickens. The boat was frequently stopped,
searched and taxed by warring parties, but it made an unhurried progress
from the old royal capital of Luang Prabang towards Vientiane. In a
sleepy village of twenty huts and three elephants, where we stayed overnight,
I wandered into a Chinese shop. In front of me, a dark and dour Pathet
Lao guerrilla in rubber tyre Ho Chi Minh sandals and AK assault rifle
on his back completed his modest shopping and paid for it with some
funny money. I recognized its colourful pattern: it was Pathet Lao currency.
As the soldier went away, I took out a few Pathet Lao bills I got as
a change on the boat and asked the shopkeeper for a pack of cigarettes.
The Chinese did not move. "But I have seen you accept this money", I
protested. He replied with wise words worthy of Lao-Tzu, "Only from
people with gun".
The US dollar is still accepted by the world community out of fear,
and that is why the US military budget grows every year. That is why
the hermit kingdom of North Korea, Iran and Iraq became The Axis of
Evil: they do not accept dollar. But fear is a bad adviser. The collapse
of the pyramid is imminent. The meltdown began in August 2001, as the
Economist advised its readers on 25.08.01, and, unless the timely intervention
of persons unknown on 11.09.01, the US dollar would be now of value
to numismatists only. But the World War III can only delay the completion
of the process.
Sheer prudence and enlightened self-interest have caused the wise rulers
to move out of the dollar sphere. European countries launched Euro,
the Japanese Yen rose sharply. But their attempt to substitute paper
by paper while keeping interest rate is necessarily flawed. In a revolutionary
proposal, Dr Mahathir, the Prime Minister of prosperous Malaysia, proposes
to return to gold and silver, more specifically to the idea of golden
'Islamic' Dinar as a zero-interest rate reserve currency for the world.
His great idea to undo the dollar and loans' double hold deserves to
be compared with the reform of Solon, the legendary Sage of Athens,
who cancelled debts, defeated Oligarchy, returned land and freedom to
people. If implemented, it would put an end to the suffering of Palestinians
and to suffering of the Third World in general. The US dollar would
fall as fast as in 1929, and with it, the US support for Israel and
your debts.
It should not be seen as an attack on America. The ordinary Americans
would regain their homes from the banks' clutches, as mortgages would
disappear. The burden of debt would fall off the back of people. True,
George Soros and Mark Rich would have to apply to welfare office, together
with many ardent supporters of Israel. But it is hardly a misfortune:
they would be too busy to make mischief as they would have to earn their
living. That is the answer to the question, how can we help Palestinians.
Ask the leaders of your countries to do the right and prudent step of
moving their funds and capitals out the US banks and out of the US dollar.
It would be more efficient than Jihad and Crusade, more humane and final
than suicide bombing. I liked the idea of Dr Mahathir. The golden Dinar
would usher us into a new world, the world of zero rate interest, the
world without usury, would help to reconcile society. Marx would enjoy
the irony of history, that the Jewish onslaught in Palestine can be
stopped only by rejecting partnership in dollar-denominated usury.
III
Religious considerations can not be removed from our practical decisions.
The 'Islamic' Dinar would complete the system of performance-connected
banking. It is called nowadays 'Islamic banking', but it was practiced
by very catholic Venice for centuries before the advent of usury. On
this point, as on many others, Dar al-Islam and Christendom do not differ.
The Church banned fixed interest, until John Calvin's fateful folly,
and the great religious reformer, Prophet Muhammad, reinforced the prohibition[iii].
The Jewish Law forbade Jews to charge interest for their "brothers"
(other Jews), but required to charge 'strangers' (non-Jews). St Ambrose
understood the implications of this approach, when he wrote: "From him
demand usury, whom you desire to harm. From him exact usury, whom it
would not be a crime to kill. Where there is a right of war, there also
is a right of usury"[iv]. That is why peace will come to Palestine when
the Jews will accept the maxim of Thomas Aquinas, "there are no strangers",
and consider the Palestinians as their dear brothers. Or, in words of
Hosea, Say of your brothers: my people, and of your sisters: my loved
one[v].
[i] Houston Chronicle, http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/editorial/outlook/1351792
[ii] Haaretz, 20.11.98, Musaf p.36
[iii] sura 2, 275-280
[iv] The quote supplied by David Pidcock.
[v] Hosea 2:1
-Israel Shamir is an Israeli journalist based in Jaffa. His articles
can be found on the site http://www.israelshamir.net/