Towards a global perspective . . .

Earlier this week, Amnesty International released a report accusing both Israel and Hamas of committing war crimes.  They provide a detailed list of ways in which Israel violated international law including the use of illegal weapons and the targeting of civilialians.    Hamas, they say, is also a war criminal despite the fact that their weapons are much less powerful, because they launch the rockets into civilian areas.  Both sides adamantly rejected their finding.   For myself, I think there is a lesson in this for Amnesty (and Human Rights Watch as well).  The lesson is that if you wish to be respected, you have to make some kind of a statement.  You can’t just reiterate what is obvious.   Hamas and their supporters in the Arab press point out that Israel attacked a largely defenseless population with overwhelming force.   Meanwhile Isreal has responded with the usual outraged cries of self defense and military necessity.   A spokesperson was shown on IBA, their own media outlet, explaining that one has to take into account the difficulties of “fighting house to house”.

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When I filled my tank today, I noticed that the price of gasoline at the pump has gone up ten cents in the last week.   It’s still low compared to a year ago, but the trend has reversed from a low of just under half the peak price of a year ago.  At the same time, the price of a barrel of oil is less than a quarter of what it was at that time, and still falling.  OPEC met to discuss raising the price of a barrel of oil, but the Saudi’s refused to honor the decision to do so.   They were deferring to their US patrons, who will reward them well to do so.  Not surprisingly, you and I are not in line to benefit from the price controls that our tax dollars pay for either.  Exxon Mobil and their peers have been making huge profits throughout the entire swing of oil prices, along with the hedge fund managers who we just bailed out to the tune of several hundred billion.   If they were making enormous profits when oil was $150 per barrel and gas was $4.50 per gallon, what do you suppose their profits will look like when oil is $30 per barrel and gas is $4.50 per gallon?