New Terror method? Arabs caught trying to set fire to cemetery

Arutz Sheva

New terror method? Arabs caught while trying to set fire to a cemetery.

by Elad Benari, Canada

Published: 06/08/11, 12:10 AM

Har HaMenuchot arson

Eitan Somech

A Jewish worshipper who came on Thursday to pray at the tombs of revered sages in the Har HaMenuchot cemetery in Jerusalem, came across several Arabs who were attempting to set some shrubs in the cemetery on fire.

The Jew reported this incident to Arutz Sheva through its You Report page, saying, “The Arabs claimed that they simply threw a cigarette. They were sitting in a cemetery and I do not know what they had to do there, and they are the only ones who were there.”

The worshipper, who attached a picture of the fire (below), wrote, “Here's what they do not want you to know. Arabs tried and almost succeeded in igniting shrubs in the Har HaMenuchot cemetery. I called the fire department but by the time they got there the Arab arsonists were gone, and so ended another arson attempt. Is this the new form of terror attacks?”

In the past several weeks, there has been evidence that Palestinian Authority terrorists are reverting to the first Intifada tactic of trying to burn down Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria. Arabs have set more than 20 fires in Jewish communities, mostly outposts, which have endangered lives and forced the evacuation of residents.

Police investigations have determined that the blazes were intentional, and tracks have led them Arab villages nearby the Jewish communities. Six Arab suspects have been arrested.

In one such incident last Friday, Arabs from Burin started a huge fire which spread up a nearby mountain and came dangerously close to the homes of the nearby community of Givat Ronen.

Firefighters who were called to put out the fire were pelted with stones.

(Arutz Sheva’s North American Desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)

More on this topic

• Eli Security Extinguishes Arab Arson Libel
• Arsonists are Terrorists, Says Knesset Member Katz
• Arson Attacks Wrack Samaria Outpost
• Photo Essay: Arab Arson, IDF Helplessness
• Arab Arson Nearly Hits Jewish Community

"Post of the Day" - Israel's Agricultural Achievements - by Dr. Reuven Reuveni

 

August 7, 2011

THE JEWISH PEOPLE AND ISRAEL

by Dr. Reuven Reuveni

DID YOU KNOW -  One cultivated dunam of land in Israel today yields 30 times more than in other countries

Israel’s Agricultural Achievements for the benefit of the world: Israeli techniques are helping to alleviate hunger and thirst. Despite a water shortage, and sometimes because of it, Israel has attained a long list of international achievements in agriculture, some of which are helping to conserve water theall over the world and some which are likely to help find a solution to Third World hunger. Top priority: Solutions to the water crisis in Israel and worldwide The availability of water on the earth is diminishing, due to many factors including skyrocketing population growth – there were less than two billion people at the beginning of the 20th century and close to eight billion people today and the consuming of much more water per person today than ever before. Israel has for many years been distributing technologies and methodologies throughout the world that support efficient use and conservation of water, ranging from drip irrigation systems to water reclamation and recycling. Today Israel is focusing its main efforts on increasing water resources through the desalination of seawater. Invented in Israel: Drip irrigation which helps reduce hunger and save water In 1955, Israeli engineer Simcha Blass developed the drip irrigation system. Thise method of irrigating through helps reduce world hunger by increasing agricultural yield while saving water. Increased number of trees The lack of water from natural resources is a permanent reality in Israel, and yet yet Israel is the only country in the world boasting a higher number of trees at the beginning of the 21st century than at the beginning of the 20th century. This is the result of investing in the land and seeking to improve its water economy. By prioritizing agricultural research, Israel has become a world leader in land reclamation and water management and today serves as a mentor for dozens of other nations. One cultivated dunam of land in Israel today yields 30 times more than in other countries The following fact is yet more proof of Israel’s high agricultural capabilities: one cultivated dunam of land in Israel yields up to 30 times more than a dunam of land in the average agricultural country. This could constitute a huge contribution to the problem of hunger afflicting more than half of humanity, and is thanks to over 60 years of continual research. Israel is among the world leaders in seed production and fruit and vegetable variety development In the mid 1990s, Israeli research institutes, led by Prof. Nahum Keidar and Prof. Haim Rabinowitz, developed a strain of cherry tomato that has gained international success and is sold across the globe. All the tomato varieties developed by Prof. Keidar are now grown in dozens of countries, from Europe to Mexico and from South Africa to Morocco and Iran. The seeds for these varieties are produced exclusively in Israel. Melons of the Galia variety were developed at the Volcani Institute and became market leaders in Europe. Israeli spices command 60-70% of the European spice market. The “Or” variety of citrus fruit, considered every agriculturalist’s dream because of its resilience to disease, easily removed peel and almost total lack of seeds, was developed in Israel at the Volcani Institute and is marketed throughout Europe. The rights were sold and the strain we developed is now grown in Spain and other European countries. Israel markets special varieties of daffodils and buttercups to all of Europe. Israel has developed many varieties of high-yield grapes for consumption. Israel has developed techniques and special strains of fruits that grow out of season and are marketed worldwide, such as strawberries, persimmons and raspberries

The Agricultural Research Organization ARO), the research arm of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, responsible for nearly 75 percent of all nationwide agricultural researchconducted in Israel. This research aims to improve existing agricultural production systems and to introduce new products, processes and equipment, thereby ensuring the basis of Israel's future agriculture. The ARO has an extensive research infrastructure that supports both basic and applied research, conducted by more than 200 Ph.D. scientists and 300 engineers and technicians. These workers are organized into six institutes located on the main campus at Bet Dagan, and in two regional research centers in the north and south of the country. Numerous  ARO developments, particularly, irrigation, arid zone and desert agriculture Sand unique varieties of fruits, vegetables and ornamental have been commercialized in Israel for the benefit of the world population.

Israel is teaching the Third World to make the shift to community agriculture

African countries, wishing to export agricultural products to the world, are seeking successful models to increase their productivity. Since the kibbutzim and moshavim in Israel are a model of community agriculture and of an economic and democratic community which maintains social solidarity, African states view Israel as a successful, inspiring model for developing commercial agricultural communities.

Israeli invention: Purple carrots. Exhibited at the International Agro-Mashov Agricultural Fair

 held each year in Israel. Photo courtesy of the Moshav Movement. 

Israeli invention: Colored bell peppers. Photo courtesy of the Moshav Movement. 

Israeli invention: Colored cauliflower. Photo courtesy of the Moshav Movement.

NOTE:

FOR MORE ARTICLES BY DR. REUVEN REUVENI, PLEASE SEE HERE ...

The failure of the liberal Jewish establishment, then and now

FRESNO ZIONISM
This entry was posted on Sunday, August 7th, 2011 at 12:31 pm 

400 mostly Orthodox rabbis march to the White House on October 6, 1943. Roosevelt avoided meeting with them.

It’s well-known that the Roosevelt Administration did little to help European Jews during the Holocaust. Unfortunately, part of the blame falls on American Jewry, which was sharply divided about how to respond — a fact which caused good men in the government to hesitate, while it gave antisemites an excuse to resist.

The NY Times has published a piece by Isabel Kershner that may bring more attention to the shameful stupidity of the Jewish establishment during that period:

The Bergson group formed in 1940 when about 10 young Jews from Palestine and Europe came to the United States to open a fund-raising and propaganda operation for the Irgun, the right-wing Zionist militia. The group was organized by Hillel Kook, a charismatic Irgun leader who adopted the pseudonym Peter H. Bergson. [Samuel] Merlin was his right-hand man.
The group began by raising money for illegal Jewish immigration to what was then the British Mandate of Palestine and promoting the idea of an army composed of stateless and Palestinian Jews. But the mission abruptly changed in November 1942 after reports of the Nazi annihilation of two million European Jews emerged. Like earlier reports of the mass killing of Jews, the news barely made the inside pages of major American newspapers like The New York Times and The Washington Post.
The Bergsonites were appalled by what they saw as the indifference of the Roosevelt administration and the passivity of the Jewish establishment, which staunchly supported the administration and largely accepted its argument that the primary American military objective was to win the war, not to save European Jews. The group embarked on a provocative campaign to publicize the genocide and to lobby Congress to support the rescue of Jews, roaming the hallways of Capitol Hill and knocking on doors, displaying a degree of chutzpah that made the traditional, pro-Roosevelt Jewish establishment uncomfortable.

Uncomfortable?

The establishment, led by Reform Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, fought Kook’s group tooth and nail. Writer Ben Hecht, recruited by Kook to stage a huge pageant in Madison Square Garden in March 1943 (“We will never die”) to raise awareness and embarrass the government into action, described one encounter:

I first became aware that there was annoyance with me among the Jews when Rabbi Stephen Wise, head of the Jews of New York, head of the Zionists and, as I knew from reading the papers, head of almost everything noble in American Jewry, telephoned me at the Algonquin Hotel where I had pitched my Hebrew tent.
Rabbi Wise said he would like to see me immediately in his rectory. His voice, which was sonorous and impressive, irritated me. I had never known a man with a sonorous and impressive voice who wasn’t either a con man or a bad actor. I explained I was very busy and unable to step out of my hotel.
“Then I shall tell you now, over the telephone, what I had hoped to tell you in my study,” said Rabbi Wise. “I have read your pageant script and I disapprove of it. I must ask you to cancel this pageant and discontinue all your further activities in behalf of the Jews. If you wish hereafter to work for the Jewish Cause, you will please consult me and let me advise you.”

Wise was a confidant of Roosevelt, and tried to use his influence to get the British to allow European Jews to enter Palestine, with no success. He was even unable to get Roosevelt to publicly speak out on the subject. According to Hecht, Kook told him that

The United States has a secret pact with Great Britain concerning the future of Palestine. It is intended to belong to the British. President Roosevelt will do nothing to violate that pact. He will not speak of Jews being massacred because that might excite popular opinion to rescue them–and result in their being sent to Palestine as a haven, which would be a violation of this pact [in December 1942, Roosevelt and allied governments did finally issue a declaration denouncing Hitler's murderous project, but no concrete actions were taken -- ed.].

When Kook organized a march of 400 mostly Orthodox Rabbis (but including Rabbi Arthur Hertzberg, z”l, who had been ordained as a Conservative rabbi some months before) to the White House, Roosevelt left before they arrived, on the advice of Wise and others.
In Louis Rappaport’s words (“Shake Heaven and Earth: Peter Bergson and the struggle to rescue the Jews of Europe,” p. xi),

During the era, Zionist leaders like Rabbi Wise and Nahum Goldmann told the State Department that Kook/Bergson was as big a threat as Hitler to the well-being of American Jewry.

Wise did his best, in the tradition of the medieval ghetto community leader who protects his people by virtue of his relationship with thegoyische prince, but he failed utterly. And then he did his best to sabotage the more aggressive, public efforts of Kook. His publicly stated reason was that he feared that Kook’s actions (which included criticism of Christians who did not intervene) would stimulate an antisemitic reaction in the US.
But there was another motive, too. Rabbi David Ellenson, president of the Reform Movement’s Hebrew Union College (in part founded by Wise), explained it in a September, 2008, talk:

“In the 1930s, it was Wise who led the rallies against Hitler, so why did he fail so horribly in the 1940s?” Ellenson asked at a Holocaust conference organized by the Washington-based David S. Wyman Institute …
He said part of the explanation lies in Wise’s “absolute and complete love” for president Franklin D. Roosevelt, as well as his antipathy toward the Zionist leader Ze’ev Jabotinsky, and toward the Bergson Group, whose leaders were followers of Jabotinsky, something that “helped blind him” to the need for more activism.
Ellenson said concerns of provoking an anti-Semitic backlash should not have thwarted the American Jewish leadership from actively working to prevent the extermination of six million Jews. “Jewish leaders have an obligation to be sufficiently flexible and imaginative to deal with unprecedented situations,” he said. He said he hoped that today’s leaders would respond more effectively to contemporary dangers facing the Jewish people, such as the Iranian nuclear threat.
“Stephen Wise spent too much time trying to protect FDR from criticism, and not enough time focusing on how to convince Roosevelt to help rescue Jews from Europe,”said Wyman Institute director Dr. Rafael Medoff. “Rabbi David Ellenson is to be commended for acknowledging the mistakes of his predecessor and trying to ensure that the failures of the 1940s will not be repeated.”

It seems to me that this is almost exactly what is happening today,with the liberal Jewish establishment in America cleaving to its President, Barack Obama, while the latter pursues policies inimical to Jewish survival. It is ironic that Rabbi Ellenson criticized Rabbi Wise in this way, and then three years later viciously attacked opponents of the nomination of J Street and New Israel Fund activist Rabbi Richard Jacobs as head of the Union for Reform Judaism!

Kook and Merlin, by the way, both sailed to Israel in 1948 on the ill-fated Irgun arms ship Altalena, which was fired on by IDF forces on the orders of David Ben-Gurion (Merlin was wounded, as the Times article notes). Interestingly, later in life, Ben-Gurion said that he regretted the decision, which he would not have made had he known Irgun leader Menachem Begin as well as he had since come to know him.
I don’t know if Wise regretted his actions in regard to Kook, although he apparently understood that he had failed in his responsibility toward the Jews of Europe. Toward the end of his life, he wrote,

I have seen and shared deep and terrible sorrow. The tale might be less tragic if the help of men had been less scant and fitful.

Today’s establishment still has time to choose the right path.

Cannibals, Vampires and Terrorists-- Oh My! - by Sultan Knish

Saturday, August 06, 2011

Joe Biden has compared the Tea Party to terrorists. Maureen Dowd compared them to cannibals and vampires. Then having run out of mythical monsters, or monsters they believe are mythical, there was nothing to do but roll out a few more articles about the Republican Party being taken over by Dittoheads from Outer Space.

What's interesting about all this Pravdaesque bile is that the focus of liberal rage and terror is aimed at the grass roots. The left dismisses the Republican party as an organization of bankers and capitalists counting their money in between making orphans sweep their chimneys, but then when a populist wave sweeps across it-- they pen dismal articles longing for the days when reasonable country club republicans ran things.

Say what you will about the closeted northeastern establishment which donates to gay rights in between golfing sessions, it knows how to be reasonable. Sometimes it's so reasonable that it scares itself. But in between listening to Chamber of Commerce lobbyists explain why America needs illegal aliens and why their chosen industry needs subsidies-- a different element crept in. A strange creature known as the American voter showed up and demanded to be heard.

The left has looked over the two Republican parties, the party of smokestacks and Pedro clean my kitchen, and the party of less taxes and less government interference. And decided that the smokestack party looks pretty good after all. It's easier to deal with liberal capitalists on the hill than with libertarian visigoths at the gate.

On MSNBC, pretend journalist Martin Bashir, interviewed a pretend doctor who explained that Tea Party members were pathologically addicted to "getting their own way". The Communists claimed that religion was the opiate of the people. Now freedom is the new addiction. "They Can't Stop Doing Their Own Thing-- on the next Phil Donahue."And the only cure is a 12 step UN and EU program to put your faith in Hope and Change.

Addicts, terrorists, vampires, zombies and cannibals. So many names for people who are tired and angry of being at the tail end of a nation run for the benefit of the Bashirs and Bidens. Who aren't looking for a handout, a subsidy or a government job-- but are addicted to the opiate of freedom.

How do you please voters who just want to be left alone? It's a frightening question that no politician wants to confront. The political establishment runs on doling out favors. In their absence there is nothing but the sounds of a country getting back to work.

At the heart of America's economic problems is a corrupt political establishment that goes on making the same mistakes year after year. They are the vampires, the cannibals and the zombies sucking the life out of the country and cracking the bones of the economy to get at the juicy marrow. They are the ones hopelessly addicted to taxpayer money and regulatory power.

Look at the name that someone else calls you and you know what they are. The left's vituperation is also its self-identification. The massive system they have built up is the vampire. Its bureaucracy is the senseless shambling zombie without a mind of its own. In its cannibal frenzy it devours its own future in a rotting pile of debt. And when the money isn't forthcoming, it holds the country hostage acting like the terrorists they sympathize with.

Unfair? So is a system where everyone is forced to subsidize an out of control government whose crony corruption has created a monopoly on power. Where everyone pays and pays to be lectured, policed, ordered about, brutalized, investigated and ruled over by one political machine or another. And when the public cries enough, the vampires, cannibals and zombies point and cry, "Cannibals, Vampires and Zombies!" Not realizing that they are actually describing themselves.

If the Tea Party were really a wholly owned creature of the Koch Brothers, as tame as Soros' left wing grass roots movements, then it would be far less objectionable to the commentators shrieking their fool heads off about it. But it isn't tame, it isn't the pet poodle of some billionaire, the way its counterparts on the left are, and that is what makes it dangerous.

The professional edifice of government that we have now works so long as everyone plays by the rules. And the first rule of Government Club is, "You can spend money, if I can spend money." And the second rule is we never talk about the first rule. When a grass roots movement of amateurs, that is built on rejecting the first rule and organizing against the second rule, comes into its own, it's the scariest thing to hit Washington D.C. since the Porcine Virus.

In the time of a highly exploitable crisis, when the left had its moment to prove that government is the solution, and free enterprise is the problem, it did the opposite. It convinced large numbers of people that government is the problem. Not that they took much convincing.

Americans are naturally distrustful of government-- but it isn't just a local reaction. Harper's win in Canada and the rise of the right in Europe are warnings of a coming storm. The wind of history is no longer blowing at socialism's back. Quite a few people in the developed world think they would do better with less regulation and more flexibility.

The god of government has failed the people in the hour of their greatest need. But the Europeans at least avoided doing what their American cousins did. Turning a man into the embodiment of their movement, unwilling to realize that messiahs are a double-edged sword. If they don't succeed, they will take you down with them. It's the lesson that Obama's mad scientists should have learned before unleashing their little monster on the global village. No one will care about your intentions, when the monster runs amok.

Like electromagnets and raising the dead, the physics of politics can be an interesting thing. There might be no Obama without Bush. And there would be no Tea Party without Obama.

The left expected a transformative moment in history-- and they were right. But it wasn't for them. The oceans didn't settle down, any more than usual, and America didn't become Sweden. Instead a sleeping giant woke and remembered its power.

The Obama Moment with its encompassing godhead of government intervention became the shorthand for everything that the traditional voter hated about the system. It wasn't racism, it was worse than that. It was heresy. The left had erected its idol in the middle of an economic meltdown, and it was stunned to discover a mob headed their way with picks and axes.

The media hailed Obama's victory as nothing less than the supernatural and transcendent force of history. But historical forces tend to attract their opposites. The left had turned a man into a symbol. And that symbol works both ways. For the left, Obama was the best of them. For the right, he was the worst of them. And economic conditions and public anger is not on the side of the idol makers, but on the side of the idol smashers. The side of the mobs who gather to torch windmills with monsters in them.

The fear and anger works both ways. And the establishment is just as angry and afraid as the people they have been stepping on. The mask of benevolence keeps slipping and underneath is a greedy smirk, a vicious snarl and a frightened ogre.

As the virulence of the establishment grows, so does its fear. What it fears most of all is a populist movement that does not depend on them and that has no use for them. It has few illusions that its interests run counter to that of the public. And that given a choice the public would toss them overboard in a minute and keep just enough government to fix the roads, put out the fires and bomb the enemies. The establishment has only gotten the taste of unlimited power, it isn't ready to be forced back into the crypt, to hide during the day time, and only to sneak out at night to drink the taxpayer's blood.

The Tea Party movement is the closest that an organized group of anti-government populists have come in some time. And that is terrifying enough. But the thought of the Tea Party as a permanent force in national politics is what truly frightens them. They can weather the occasional populist storm, but not a full scale firestorm.

Change is a dangerous slogan. It indicates a dissatisfaction with the status quo. It can be co-opted by politicians, but it is a raw pulsing nerve indicating tension and anger below. Touch the nerve and the unexpected might happen. Obama came to power on change. But now faced with the prospect of real change, his supporters see monsters behind everywhere. Terrifying creatures coming to bring change. Real change.

Daniel Greenfield
is a columnist at Front Page Magazine, Canada Free Press and Israel National News, and a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center

Obama and Castro

Fidel and Raul Castro-photo

COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS

Posted on Saturday, August 6, 2011

by Elliott Abrams

Fidel and Raul Castro have decided not to free the American hostage they now hold.  Or, as the newspapers put it in legal language “Cuban court rejects appeal by U.S. contractor.”

Alan Gross was a USAID contractor sent to Cuba to help the tiny Jewish community there connect to the internet and thereby to Jewish communities around the world.  For this “crime” he has been in prison since December 2009. Now Cuba’s “Supreme Court” has rejected his appeal of a fifteen year sentence. The term “court” must always be put in quotes regarding Cuba, for as in all communist states the “courts” are not independent of party control. It was Fidel and Raul Castro who decided to jail Gross, who determined his sentence, who keep him in prison, and who have just rejected his appeal.

Cuba’s “laws” permit clemency, so Gross could be released by the Castros any day they please.  In that sense the ball is now squarely in their court, all of Gross’s “legal” appeals having run out.  But in another sense the ball is now in President Obama’s court. How will he respond to this action by the Castros? His spokesman said “We call on the government of Cuba to release Alan Gross immediately and unconditionally, to allow him to return to his family and bring to an end the long ordeal that began well over a year ago.” That’s fine. But in fact the Obama Administration has given the Castro regime numerous benefits, for example allowing more Americans to travel to Cuba and thereby help its economy. Some of those benefits were awarded in 2009 soon after coming into office,  but others were put into place this year, even as Alan Gross sat in a Cuban prison.

Now what? Running for office in 2008, Mr. Obama told audiences in Miami that his policy toward Cuba would be based on “libertad,” and said “The road to freedom for all Cubans must begin with justice for Cuba’s political prisoners….”

It is time to make good on that promise, for like the Cubans who sit for decades in the Castros’ jails Mr. Gross is a political prisoner. The hope that measures relaxing the American embargo would lead the Castro brothers to release Mr. Gross seems near an end. There is one further step to take through diplomatic channels now: the Castro brothers should quietly be told that unless their “clemency” is exercised the relaxation of travel restrictions will be reversed and greater pressure brought on the government of Cuba. And after giving them a short time to respond, Mr. Obama should act if they do not. It would be intolerable for the Castros to benefit from Obama policies while Alan Gross sits, month after month, in their prisons.

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 6th, 2011 at 8:16 am

MICHELE BACHMANN CALLS FOR OBAMA TO DEMAND GEITHNER’S RESIGNATION

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geither

THE BLAZE
Posted on August 6, 2011 at 8:17am by  Madeleine Morgenster

Michele Bachmann called for President Barack Obama to demand Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner’s resignation in response to S&P’s downgrade of the U.S. credit rating Friday.

The Republican presidential candidate and Minnesota congresswoman spoke with Fox’s Greta Van Susteren just after the news broke.

“President Obama is destroying the foundations of our economy one beam at a time. I call on the president to seek the immediate resignation of Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and to submit a plan with his list of cuts to balance the budget this year, turn the economy around and put our people back to work.”

“I’m very concerned that the administration tomorrow might look for anyone else to blame. They may blame the Tea Party, they may blame the ratings agency or anyone else. They knew it was coming this year in January but they didn‘t write a plan and they still don’t have a plan.”

My note - this video says it all .....

Turbo Tax Tim Geithner " no risk of downgrade"

The President's New Clothes - by Matt Holtzmann

August 6, 2011

AMERICAN THINKER

By Matt Holtzmann

Gather round, children, and I will tell you the story of the President's New Clothes.

Once upon a time, there was a vain president in far off Washington whose only worry in life was to dress in elegant clothes and have parties. He began by holding weekly soiree's, and then twice per week, and then three times per week. And at each soiree' he loved to show off his new clothes and played with the presidential Teleprompter telling ever more outrageous stories.

His consort, Princess Shopping Cart, would also dress up in the most expensive and outrageous outfits, which disturbed the common folk to no end while the sycophants and hangers-on all cried with joy at her inventiveness. The plebes, however, began to call her Princess Gaga.

The President and his Princess had the most wonderful times eating cake and spending the plebe's money with their rich liberal friends, who all professed their solidarity with the plebes as they ate cake.

One day, two clever economists from far off Italy named Dolci and Gabbano heard of the vain president and decided to take advantage of him.

They went to the President's gate dressed in the finest clothes and said to the guards "We are two very fine economists who also happen to moonlight as tailors, and can not only fix your economy, but also weave a policy of whole cloth so light and fine that it looks invisible. We'll even throw in an extra pair of pants for free."

The head guard heard the strange story, but did not know what to make of the two outrageously dressed strangers. He summoned the Chamberlain of the Economic Policy Council. The Chamberlain notified the Chief of Staff, who ran to the President and disclosed the incredible news.

The President's curiosity got the better of him, and he immediately summoned the two economists to his throne room.

"We have done many years of research, and can not only fix your economy, but we have also invented an extraordinary method to weave a policy so light and fine that it looks invisible. As a matter of fact, the policy is so fine and incredible that it is invisible to anyone who is too stupid and incompetent to appreciate its quality." And we will throw in the pants for free."

The President gave the two scoundrels a large sack of TARP funds, and said "Just tell me what you need and I shall give it to you".

They asked for a loom, silk, an Apple MacBook Pro and the finest gold thread, and began to pretend to work. They promptly converted the TARP funds into RMB Yuan and transferred them to an untraceable bank account in Austria, which everyone knows is much more secure than Switzerland these days. The gold thread was melted down into bar and hidden in a safe place in case of hyperinflation.

The President thought he had spent his money quite well. He would fix his economy, get a new policy, and find out which of his plebes were ignorant and incompetent, along with an extra pair of pants.

 He promptly held another soirée, where the clothing was the most outrageous yet and the cake was made of the finest ingredients. He invited Princess Oprah and Lord Harry and Nancy of Marin and Princess Shopping Cart outdid herself in a dress made of environmentally sustainable materials including dixie cups and duct tape and lawn clippings and tinfoil.

Once the door closed behind them, the two economists chortled with glee. "Whadda Maroon" said Dolci. "whattan embezzle!" said Gabanno. For days they pretended to work deep into the night at the loom, but in fact were listening to iTunes on their Bluetooth headsets.

Several days later when he had heard nothing from the economists, the President said "I would really like to know how they are coming along with my policy and my extra pair of pants." But he was a bit uneasy when he recalled that anyone who was unfit for his position would not be able to see the policy or the material. Of course he himself had nothing to fear, but still he decided to send someone else in order to follow protocol.

"I'll send my honest old Treasury Secretary to the economists" thought the President. He's the best one to see how the policy is coming along and knows good clothing. He is very sensible and no one is more worthy of his position than he. So the honest old Treasury Secretary went into the hall where the two economists sat busily working their empty looms and typing on the computer. They had printed out 1,000 pages of incomprehensible gobbledegook, but the loom seemed empty.

"Goodness, thought the Treasury Secretary, I cannot understand a single phase of this policy and I cannot see a thing." But he did not say so.

The two swindlers invited him to step closer, asking him if wasn't the most beautifully elegant policy and if the colors of the pants were not the most magnificent he had seen. They pointed to the empty loom and the thousand pages of gobbledygook and the poor old Treasury Secretary opened his eyes wider and wider. He still could see nothing for nothing was there. "Gracious, he thought. Is it possible that I am stupid? I have never thought so. Am I unfit for my position? No one must know this.  No, it would never do for me to say that I am unable to understand the policy or see the extra pair of pants. "

"You aren't saying anything!" said one of the economists.

"Oh! The policy is magnificent! It will solve all of our problems and will only penalize those with incomes over $250,000 dollars, depending upon how we define it. Peering through his glasses, the Treasury Secretary said " The patterns and colors of the extra pair of pants are magnificent! Yes, I will tell the president that it is beyond our greatest expectations!"

"That makes us very happy!" said the two economists, and the called the policy and the colors and the pattern by name. The old Treasury Secretary listened very closely so that he would know exactly which words to say when he reported back to the President, and that is exactly what he did.

The swindlers now asked for more money and silk and gold and shares in  Exchange Traded Funds, all of which were immediately granted and all of which were immediately laundered. They then continued to weave on empty looms as before and download Latvian folk poetry translated through babelfish and parsed through Lexis/Nexis.

The President sent other officials as well to observe the economists progress. They too were startled when they saw nothing and they too reported back to the president how wonderful the policy was and how beautiful the extra pair of pants were, advising him to carry the policy and wear the pants in a grand procession. The entire city was alive with praise of the policy and of the pants. "Magnifique!!,  Prima!!!,  Nysseligt!!, Incredible!!" they said in all languages. The President awarded the economists with medals of Nobel, bestowing on each of them the title of Senior Policy Advisor and Master Weaver.

The swindlers stayed up the entire night before the procession was to take place, burning more that 16 compact fluorescent lamps. Everyone could see they were in a great rush to finish the policy and the extra pair of pants. They pretended to take the material from the looms and ordered 3 extra printers and a collating machine in order to print the new policy. They cut the air with large scissors, and bound the policy with the most exquisite bindings of fine Corinthian leather. They sewed the air with needles without any thread. Finally, they said "Behold! The President's policy is completed! And while we ran 3,000% over budget, behold the extra pair of pants, along with a frock coat and vest, are finished!"

The President came to them with his most trusted advisors, Congressmen, Senators, and Princess Shopping Cart. The two economists handed the President the exquisitely bound new policy, which he promptly passed to a page as he strode forward to see the new clothes. The two swindlers raised their arms as if they were holding something and said " Just look at this extra set of pants! Here is the jacket! This is the vest!!" and so forth. "They are light as spider webs! You might think you didn't have a thing on, but that is the good thing about them!"

"Yes!" said the advisers and Congressmen and Senators and Princess Shopping Cart, but they couldn't see a thing because nothing was there.

"Would your Presidentness, if it pleases, kindly remove your clothes so that we may dress you?" asked the swindlers. "We will then fit you perfectly with the new ones, in front of this mirror."

The president took off all of his clothes, and the economists pretended to dress him, piece by piece with the new ones that were to be fitted. They took hold of his waist and pretended to tie something around it. They pretended to tie his tie in an exquisitely formed knot just so. Then the president turned and faced the mirror.

"Goodness! Don't the clothes fit you well! What a wonderful fit!" everyone said. " What a pattern! What colors! Such luxurious clothes!"

"The canopy to be carried above Your Presidentness awaits outside" said the Director of Protocol.

 "Yes! I am ready!" said the President. " Don't they fit well?" Princess Shopping Cart could only smoulder at all of the attention he was getting.

The chamberlains who were to carry the train held their hands just above the floor as if they were picking up the train. As they walked, they pretended to carry the train high. For they could not let anyone notice they could see nothing.

The President walked beneath the beautiful canopy in the procession, the new policy symbolically carried by two carefully chosen members of special interest groups, and all of the people on the street and in their windows said " Goodness!! The new policy will save us all (except those with incomes over $250,000), and the President's new clothes are incomparable. What a beautiful jacket! What an exquisite pair of spare pants!" Scribes Krugman and Sullivan and Friedman and Robinson all praised the policy as they were told to do by Journo List. No one wanted to admit that they had not read the policy nor that they could see the President's new clothes, for then it would be said they were unfit for their position or that they were stupid. None of the President's clothes or policies had ever received such praise.

"But he doesn't have anything on," said a small child in a wondering voice.

"Good Lord! Let us hear the voice of an innocent child!" said the father, and whispered to a reporter what the child had said.

" A small child has said the President doesn't have anything on!" said the reporter. "And having seen a copy of the policy it seems to be nothing but Latvian folk poetry!" he continued.

Finally, everyone was saying "He doesn't have anything on! The policy is gobbledygook!"

The President shuddered, for he knew that they were right, but he thought "The procession must go on!" He carried himself even more proudly as the pages of the policy began to come loose from their bindings and dance in the breeze, and the chamberlains carried the train that wasn't there.

The two Italian economists, Dolci and Gabbano, crept softly into the night onto a G5 bound for Neckar Island, where they could not be extradited, and were warmly greeted by Angelo Mozillo, the chairman of Goldman Sachs, and George Soros.

The End

All proper respect to Hans Christian Andersen.