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/what-about-the-arab-apartheid.php

   March 16, 2010 5:00 AM
   by Khaled Abu Toameh

   What About The Arab Apartheid?

   How come the Lebanese students who recently talked about Israel's "war crimes" in the Gaza Strip during Israel Apartheid Week on many North American college campuses had nothing to say about the fact that tens of thousands of Palestinians have been massacred in Lebanon over the past four decades?

   Dozens of refugees were killed and hundreds wounded in the three-month offensive that also destroyed thousands of houses inside the refugee camp. Reporters said it was the worst internal violence in Lebanon since the civil war that hit the country between 1975-1990. And just three years ago, the Lebanese Army used heavy artillery to bomb the Nahr-al-Bared refugee camp in north Lebanon.

   Yet who has ever heard of a United Nations resolution condemning Syria or Lebanon for committing horrific atrocities or discriminating against the Palestinians?

   The Lebanese, Syrian and Jordanian students and professors who took part in the anti-Israel events on campuses have clearly "forgotten" that their regimes probably have more Palestinian blood on their hands than Israel. In the early 1970s, the Jordanians slaughtered thousands of Palestinians in what has become known as Black September. Can somebody point to one United Nations resolution condemning that massacre?

   And where was the United Nations when Kuwait and several Gulf countries expelled more than 400,000 Palestinians in one week? The exodus took place in March 1991, after Kuwait was liberated from Iraqi occupation. Ironically, the first week of March is being celebrated on university campuses as Israel Apartheid Week with no reference to the mass expulsion of Palestinians from the Gulf.

   Although there are more than 400,000 Palestinians living in Lebanon in twelve refugee camps -- which human rights organizations and Palestinians say have the worst living conditions of all the refugee camps in the Middle East -- as in most of the Arab countries, these Palestinians have been assigned the status of "foreigners," a fact which has deprived them of health care, social services, property ownership and education.

   Even worse, Lebanese law bans Palestinians from working in many jobs. This means that Palestinians cannot work in the public services and institutions run by the government such as schools and hospitals. Unlike Israel, Lebanese public hospitals do not admit Palestinians for medical treatment or surgery.

   Can somebody imagine the outcry of the international community if Israel's parliament, the Knesset, passed a law today prohibiting Arabs from working in certain professions or receiving medical treatment? Ironically, the Arab citizens of Israel enjoy more rights in the Jewish state than their Palestinians brothers do in any Arab country.

   The same applies to Palestinians living in most of the Arab countries.

   While Israel has never stripped its Arab citizens of their citizenship, Jordan has begun revoking the...

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2. http://www.hudsonny.org/2010/03/why-is-it-that-only.php

   March 16, 2010 4:30 AM
   by Michael Young

   Just what does Barack Obama stand for?

   Judging from the Obama administration's performance recently, it's hard to tell. If we take a random selection of values or principles that might be guiding the US in the region, we enter a policy fog, the frequent over-reliance on style at the expense of substance. One can say many things about George W. Bush's years in office, positive and negative, but he never sinned through ambiguity. A year into Obama's term, however, ambiguity and disorientation are presidential trademarks in the Middle East.

   Does the administration stand for democracy, for example, or more broadly has it made human rights principles a centerpiece of its policy? Not really. During his campaign Obama consciously played down that...

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3. http://www.hudsonny.org/2010/03/iran-thugs-in-clerical-dress-vs-the-sufis.php

   March 15, 2010 5:00 AM
   by Stephen Suleyman Schwartz

   Iran: "Thugs in Clerical Dress" vs. The Sufis

   Iran is locked in a stalemate between its clerical rulers, represented by the fanatical Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his puppet, the demagogic president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, on one side, and the protesting masses, calling for "death to the dictatorship," on the other. The standoff, for an oppositional movement that appeared ready to sweep the Tehran usurpers aside, became visible on February 11, the 31st anniversary of the Iranian Islamic Revolution.

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4. http://www.hudsonny.org/2010/03/a-twenty-page-healthcare-bill-in-plain-english.php

   March 15, 2010 4:45 AM
   by Betsy McCaughey

   A TWENTY-PAGE HEALTHCARE BILL IN PLAIN ENGLISH

   REDUCES PREMIUMS AND HELPS LAID-OFF AMERICANS

   THIS BILL IS NOT DANGEROUS TO YOUR HEALTH OR YOUR FREEDOM

   CONTAINS NO MANDATES ON INDIVIDUALS OR STATES

   This bill recognizes that states have regulated health insurance for over six decades, consistent with the McCarran-Ferguson Act (1945). Some states have taken smart approaches to lowering costs and expanding access, especially to people with pre-existing conditions. This bill copies what works, not what has failed.

   Title 1: Liberates consumers to buy policies from other states, and puts consumers on notice that the products they buy out-of-state may have different consumer protections than those imposed in their own state. This title also imposes federal consumer protections on plans sold interstate, ensuring that those plans prohibit rescission and protect consumers who have paid their premiums from being dropped.

   Title 2: Provides federal incentives for states to establish medical courts, ensuring quicker, fairer verdicts in medical liability cases and at the same time preserving every litigant's right to trial by jury. Medical courts will be presided over by a judge who knows the issues, has the experience, can identify honest expert witnesses and reduce the impact of those who are not honest. Tort law has always been a matter left to states. This bill does not mandate that states establish medical courts or attempt to federalize tort law. It does provide block grants to states to impose caps on damages and, more importantly, to establish medical courts. "Why just cap unjust damage awards when you can eliminate them by having expert judges?" asks McCaughey.

   Title 3: Provides federal incentives for states to establish or improve subsidized high risk pools to help consumers with pre-existing conditions and poor health. This concept is similar to what is also proposed in the Patients' Choice Act, supported by Senator Tom Coburn. No state is required to establish these pools.

   Title 4: Extends the current 65% COBRA subsidy, established by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The President's fiscal 2011 budget also contains such an extension. Republicans are likely to find this an important common ground. COBRA subsidies are not a permanent entitlement but rather a temporary helping hand to those who have been laid off. The average COBRA annual premium for a family of four is $13, 322, a big price tag when you've lost your job. "For over half of uninsured Americans legally in this country, being uninsured is a temporary problem. They find another job and are insured again in less than a year. We need to help them in between jobs," says McCaughey.

   The ten year cost of Titles 1, 2 and 3 of this bill is $27 billion (or $2.7 billion per year). The COBRA extension is already included in the President's fiscal 2011 budget. Funding this COBRA subsidy could cost $24 billion per year and provide coverage for an estimated 7 million people.

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   A TWENTY-PAGE BILL IN PLAIN ENGLISH TO REDUCE PREMIUMS AND HELP LAID -OFF AMERICANS

   THIS BILL IS NOT DANGEROUS TO YOUR HEALTH OR YOUR FREEDOM

   CONTAINS NO MANDATE ON STATES OR INDIVIDUALS

   DEFINITION: SHORT TITLE; PURPOSE.

   (a) Short Title. - This Act may be cited as the "Mandate Free Act for Reducing the Number of Uninsured Americans..

   (b) Purpose. - The purpose of this Act is to make health insurance more affordable and dependable without imposing mandates on states or individuals.

   Table of Contents

   Title 1: Promoting Free Market Competition and Consumer Protections Across State Lines

   Title 2: Incentives for States to Reduce Medical Liability Costs

   Title 3: Incentives for States to Establish or Improve High Risk Pools

   Title 4: Helping Industrious Americans Buy Coverage Between Jobs

   This bill is limited to twenty pages in length to ensure that it is accessible to the public and readable by Members of Congress before they vote on it.

   TITLE 1 - PROMOTING FREE MARKET COMPETITION AND CONSUMER PROTECTIONS ACROSS STATE LINES

   SEC. 101. INTERSTATE PURCHASING OF HEALTH INSURANCE

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5. http://www.hudsonny.org/2010/03/behind-the-burqa-debate-in-europe.php

   March 12, 2010 5:00 AM
   by Valentina Colombo

   Europe: Behind the Burqa Debate

   French President Nicolas Sarkozy, talking in an ornate chamber of the Palace of Versailles last June, 2009, started a new controversy when he said: "In our country we cannot accept that women be prisoners behind a screen, cut off from all social life, deprived of all identity. The burqa is not a religious sign. It is a sign of subservience, a sign of debasement. It will not be welcome on the territory of the French republic"

   This followed the 2004 ban on "religious symbols" -- among them, the hijab or simple head-cover, in French public schools.

   The ban, however, is not a matter of bias against Islam as some Islamists say, but of...

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6. 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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7. 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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