PULSE
According to Robert Fisk at The Independent, Arab states are quietly ditching the US dollar in their energy trade. The gradual reduction of dollar reserves could have a devastating effect on the value of the dollar and ability of the US Treasury to finance the national debt.
While the price of gold is rocketing skyward the Israel lobby is no doubt quietly celebrating. Over the past decade, a multi-tiered strategy aimed at getting Americans to see the Middle East as a battlefield rather than a marketplace has slowly unfurled with devastating results.
The subtle racism inherent in such sloganeering as “reducing our dependence on foreign oil” has an unwelcome counterpart–Arabs reducing their demand for American consumer and industrial goods. AIPAC sponsored legislation such as the Syria Accountability Act, the perennial Saudi Accountability Act (urged and funded by such financial geniuses as Hank Greenberg of AIG) as well as the Dubai Ports debacle and tag team efforts by the US Treasury and New York DA have finally accomplished their long term objective: an Israel centric US Middle East trade policy that alienates valuable partners and locks American exporters out of market driven demand in exchange for captive taxpayer funded US military requisitions.
AIPAC’s drive–beginning with the corrupted US-Israel Free Trade Area–steadily reduced the US share of the booming 22 country Arab League import market from 12.77% in 1997 to a mere 8.55% in 2008. What should be a natural trading partner for energy hungry America is instead a desert–though not for competitors. Arab import demand quadrupled from $158 billion in 1997 to $608 billion last year.