Mideast Media Sampler 11/13/11

DG:

1) Proxy warfare

Referring to an article reporting on EU pressure on Israel to scrap a bill limiting the funding of NGO's by foreign governments, David Bernstein at the Volokh Conspiracy writes (via memeorandum):

So the idea here, obviously is that a “democratic” country must allow foreign governments, who represent foreign citizens and not Israelis, to interfere in its domestic politics by supporting organizations that range from the fringe left to beyond the fringe left. Now that is chutzpah!

Imagine if Israel was funneling millions of Euros annually to Basque separatists in Spain, Flemish nationalists in Belgium, or to one of numerous neo-fascist fronts in Norway and France. I have a very strong feeling that the EU’s views of what “democratic” countries must tolerate from foreign governments would change rather quickly. 

UPDATE: Among other laws, in the U.S. the NGOs in question would be subject to the Foreign Agent Registration Act which, according to the official website, “requires persons acting as agents of foreign principals in a political or quasi-political capacity to make periodic public disclosure of their relationship with the foreign principal, as well as activities, receipts and disbursements in support of those activities. Disclosure of the required information facilitates evaluation by the government and the American people of the statements and activities of such persons in light of their function as foreign agents.” Last I heard, Israel had no such requirements, but perhaps the EU thinks that the U.S. is “undemocratic” as well.

Israel Matzav adds:

It's time to stand up to the Europeans. They would never tolerate the outside interference in their own legislative processes that they conduct in Israel.

Instapundit linked to Volokh, and calls the EU efforts "proxy warfare."

The EU makes up one of the components of the Quartet charged with overseeing the Middle East peace process. It's hard to credit the EU of being a disinterested observer, if their governments are insisting that Israel give a free hand to those organizations whose main purpose is to hurt Israel's standing in the world.

2) Being an ex-dictator sucks

The Swiss are looking into the bank accounts of the deposed leaders of the Arab Spring.

Switzerland’s financial regulator FINMA has opened probes against four Swiss banks over their handling of hundreds of millions of dollars in assets linked to the deposed leaders of Tunisia, Egypt and Libya.

The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority says it examined 20 banks and found that four institutions had made mistakes warranting “enforcement proceedings.”

This is awfully brave of them. Qaddafi (especially), Mubarak and Ben Ali are in no position to object. But why aren't they looking into Arafat's Swiss bank account? I would guess thatMahmoud Abbas and Bashar Assad have millions stashed away too. Maybe the regulators ought to take a look at those who haven't (yet) been deposed.

3) So he wasn't all bad 

AP reports, Deadly village feud in central Egypt reveals depth of security breakdown since Mubarak ouster:

The feud, which escalated from a fight between two youths, and the security forces’ failure to stop it reveals the depth of the security breakdown across Egypt since the popular uprising that ousted longtime President Hosni Mubarak in February. Robberies and other violent crime has also risen, and the police appear to be doing little to try to stop it. Police have yet to return to the streets in full force since they vanished during the 18-day uprising that toppled Mubarak.

4) The price

Towards the end of Gilad Shalit and the Rising Price of an Israeli Life, in the New York Times Magazine, Ronen Bergman writes:

In 2007, a special commission was set up to determine a set of clear criteria to be followed in future prisoner exchanges. In order to protect negotiations on the Shalit deal, its details were not published, but I was told by a source in the ministry of defense that they include a warning against paying an exorbitant price to terrorist organizations in order to bring prisoners home, that the guiding principle should be bodies for bodies and small numbers of imprisoned terrorists for living hostages.

Perhaps this commission was asking Israelis to evoke an attitude that was more prevalent before the first Lebanon war of 1982 and the economic boom of the mid-’80s. It was the attitude in which one Israeli was willing to sacrifice himself for the collective, and in which the collective accepted this sacrifice. Looking back 35 years, it is undeniable that a shift has occurred in Israeli society. It is doubtful, when the time comes, that politicians will be able to resist public pressure and give up whatever is necessary, whatever percentage of the nearly 5,000 Palestinian prisoners still held in Israel, to bring the missing home.

Technorati Tag: Israel and Middle East.