Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netenyahu, rates low with just about everyone. It's no surprise he would team up with Republican members of Congress to do an end run around President Obama. Now Rick Perry is getting into the act. Congressional Republicans and a presidential candidate of the opposition party are complicating the relationship between the US State Department and an ally government even though Obama and Republicans tend to agree that Palestine should not go to the UN in its pursuit of statehood.
Mindful of Mr. Obama’s strained relationship with Mr. Netanyahu and emboldened by a special election victory last week in a heavily Jewish Congressional district in New York, Republicans hope the tensions between Mr. Obama and Israel — underscored by the latest developments at the United Nations — will help propel future political victories for their party.
Meanwhile, many Americans and Europeans, including many American Jews, are cheering Palestine's efforts at the UN while members of Congress -- including some Democratic members -- are threatening to withdraw aid from Palestine . All of this could have considerable influence on the outcome of the 2012 election.
Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia, the most powerful Jewish member of Congress, said the importance of the Israeli-American security connections was driven home during their August visit, during which a bus was bombed. “We saw U.S. taxpayer dollars in cooperation between American interest and Israeli interests toward the same end,” Mr. Cantor said.
“We’re in it together.”
“What you have on the Hill is a bipartisan demonstration for the U.S./Israeli relationship, and frankly I think it’s in contrast to the signals being sent from the White House,” he said. Mr. Cantor has written an op-ed article, which has yet to be published, with Representative Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, the minority whip, expressing their support for the nation.
Mr. Cantor also recalled the conversation concerning the $50 million, and the prime minister’s support for it, and said that further monies from Congress would be “colored greatly by the Palestinians’ actions at the U.N.” ...NYT
___
Republicans in Congress are also leaning on the Fed, trying to stop it from making any further stimulus to the economy, in spite of the need for credit and the urgings of many economists.
The letter was sent in the midst of a two-day meeting in which Fed officials are widely expected to undertake policies to lower long-term interest rates. That move would be intended to loosen up credit in hopes of promoting growth. The meeting ends Wednesday, and the Fed is expected to release a statement Wednesday at 2:15 p.m.
“I just don’t think the Fed will sit idly as momentum fizzles in this recovery,” said Dana Saporta, a United States economist at Credit Suisse.
Minutes from the Fed’s latest meeting revealed sharp dissent within the group of policy makers, so further stimulus is not necessarily a sure bet.
As the Republican letter notes, economists are divided on how much the move would help the stalled recovery. The Fed, after all, has tried several rounds of monetary stimulus in the last four years.
The Federal Reserve has been and is supposed to be an independent body, free of political influence.
Appearing to cave to political interests — on the left or the right — could compromise the Fed’s authority and jolt markets even more than a popular or unpopular policy decision.
___
A report at The Hill makes the Republicans unprecedented bullying even more explicit.
The Fed prides itself on its political independence, and politicians from both parties typically have taken great pains to not be seen as challenging that independence. But Monday's letter runs counter to that, as leading GOP lawmakers are now explicitly calling on the Fed to make or avoid certain policy moves, or at least justify their choices.
"The American people have reason to be skeptical of the Federal Reserve vastly increasing its role in the economy if measurable outcomes cannot be demonstrated," the lawmakers wrote.
On Wednesday, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) will issue its latest statement and announce its latest policy moves. Financial markets are anticipating the Fed will use the opportunity to take additional steps, as Bernanke has highlighted such options in the past in light of the slowing economic recovery.
