Thomas Hunter is man caught between two worlds. After hitting his head, he wakes up in an alternate future Earth separated into areas of good and evil. When Hunter sleeps in the alternate world, he wakes in our Earth, and vice versa. This is the premise of Ted Dekker’s masterful Circle Trilogy.
The Circle Trilogy is composed of the books, Black, Red, and White. The books are a science-fiction/fantasy epic as well as a spiritual allegory. In a true Alpha and Omega story, Dekker provides a synopsis of the Bible from the Garden of Eden through the resurrection of Jesus to the birth of the Christian church.
The first book in the series, Black, begins as Hunter discovers his predicament and begins to learn about the future world. An encounter with the demonic Teeleh reveals to Hunter that a deadly virus is about to be unleashed in the 21st century Earth. When he sleeps in the future and wakes in the present, Hunter begins a quest to convince authorities of the danger and stop the virus, which according to the Histories, leads to the Great Deception, a Tribulation-like era.
The future world seems to be representative of both the future Millennial Reign of Christ as well humanity’s past in the Garden of Eden. We are specifically told that it is a future Earth and this is confirmed in Red and White as we learn more about the Books of the Histories, volumes that contain details of the Earth’s history. Some books of the Bible, including the Gospel of John, are included in the Books of the Histories.
Hunter’s future Earth is also symbolic of the Garden of Eden. Even though there is a large society, rather than a single couple, the good side of the future Earth is a beautiful and innocent place characterized by a lush rainbow forest where God, Elyon, and man exist together. The inhabitants of the rainbow forest are protected from the demonic bats, inhabitants of the dark forest, by a river that separates the two forests. The river is bridged, but the bats cannot cross. Unfortunately, the paradise that is the rainbow forest is vulnerable to rebellion and the bats are only too willing to deceive the humans with their forbidden water, which Teeleh claims will give knowledge.
Red is the fall of man. The bats are unleashed from the dark forest and wreak havoc on the rainbow forest. A disease is unleashed in both worlds. The deadly virus is unleashed by terrorists in our world, while the destruction of the rainbow forests leads to a degenerative skin disease in the future. The skin disease can be treated by obeying a set of rules handed down by Elyon, including bathing in protected lakes. The Forest People, as they are now called, have added to these rules over the years to create a complex code called the Great Romance, which is akin to the Talmud. The priest who oversees the new religion is Ciphus.
The Forest People are in a state of constant war with the Horde, the remnants of the rainbow forest dwellers who are victims of the skin disease. Hunter is now leader of the Forest Guard, a legend among friend and foe alike. Meanwhile, in the present day, Hunter leads a desperate effort to find an anti-virus to save the world from a horrible death.
The title of the book refers to the blood shed by a former member of the Forest Guard who tries to make peace between the Horde and the Forest People. Instead, he is betrayed and executed in an obvious allusion to Jesus Christ. His sacrifice leads to a method of permanently curing the skin disease by being “baptized” in a pool of red water.
The series concludes with White. The final installment deals with last-ditch attempts to forestall the virus. In the future, Hunter tries to gain access to the Books of the Histories while engaging in covert operations in the present day. White also deals with the persecution by the Horde of the new sect called the Circle. The volume is an allegory of the love of Elyon for His people, whom He considers His bride.
The Circle Trilogy is entertaining and spiritually enlightening on many levels. It can be read as a dramatic supernatural thriller in the vein of Stephen King or it can be viewed as parable of the Gospel. The fast-paced plot, as unlikely as it is, draws the reader in and makes the books difficult to put down. By transporting the story of Christ from the distant past to the distant future, Dekker deepens our understanding of why Jesus offered Himself for us, and what it must have been like for the people of Christ’s time who watched the world shattering events at close range.
In addition to traditional novels, the Circle Trilogy is also available as a series of graphic novels. The comic-style picture novels bring the story of Thomas Hunter to younger readers.
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Why Soaking the Rich is a Bad Idea
I am a pilot for a fractional jet company. My company supplies private jet shares to the rich and famous. The public perception is that these airplanes are toys that the rich buy so that they won’t have to rub shoulders with the masses. Liberals believe that the government should increase taxes on the rich, such as my company’s customers. The idea of taxing the rich is a tempting one, but in reality it is counter productive.
When taxes are increased on the rich, the rich obviously have less money to spend on items like shares of our corporate jets. Perhaps, they will put more of their money into tax shelters or foreign investments where tax laws are more favorable.
If a rich businessman doesn’t get to buy his jet, who is hurt? The most obvious answer is my company and its employees. If my company doesn’t sell a jet share, then the salesman does not get a commission, additional pilots are not hired, and jobs for support employees such as dispatchers, schedulers, maintenance coordinators, and administrative workers are not created.
Equally obvious is the loss to the aircraft manufacturer. Manufacturing jobs may be lost as aircraft orders dwindle. This also applies to subcontractors who work sheet metal, electricians who build avionics, craftsmen who work wood and leather for aircraft interiors, and the manufacturers of the thousands of parts that are assembled together to create a working airplane.
The damage does not stop there, however. The rich guy will not fly his jet around the country. When he does not visit local airports, local businesses called Fixed Base Operators (FBOs) don’t sell him fuel. Local businesses do not sell him catered food for his trips. Local aircraft mechanics miss out on the opportunity to work on the airplane. Local and state governments lose tax revenue from the lost fuel sales and airport fees.
Because the non-owner may never visit many places that he would otherwise see, other local businesses will also lose revenue. Cars will not be rented or hired, hotel rooms will not be rented, and restaurants will not be patronized. Tourism will suffer as museums and other tourist attractions are not visited.
Because many trips on private jets are business trips and not pleasure trips, investment in local businesses may suffer also, especially in areas not served by airlines. A deal that would be made in person may not be consummated over the telephone. Difficulty in obtaining outside investment may cause local businesses to stagnate and not create new jobs, causing small towns to go into further decline.
The jobs that are lost or are never created are not the end. As each person loses his job or cannot find a new one, their troubles spread to others. As one person runs out of money, his inability to pay his bills or buy new products affects other people and businesses down the line. Businesses are forced to write off bad debt that they could have collected from an employed person. Sales fall because unemployed workers have less money to spend, causing businesses to cut back and hire fewer workers.
Ironically, as the economy slows in the aftermath of tax increases, the government takes in less tax revenue. This is because the slowing economy is shrinking. Revenues for businesses and incomes for individuals are falling, so a tax, even at a higher percentage, yields a smaller total revenue.
The good news is that, as we learn from the past, the opposite is also true. If we reduce taxes, then the economy grows and businesses thrive. When business thrives, jobs are created and incomes rise. This, in turn, leads to higher tax revenues for the government in spite of the fact that the government takes a smaller percentage of each American’s paycheck. This process has worked four times in the past hundred years during the 1920s (under Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon), the 1960s (President Kennedy), the 1980s (President Reagan), and the 2000s (President George W. Bush).
Additionally, President Bush’s tax cuts had the effect of shifting more of the tax burden to upper income taxpayers. The top one percent of income earners currently pays about 33% of all income taxes versus 32% before. This is because the tax rates were lowered for Americans of all tax brackets with lower income tax payers realizing a larger percentage decrease than higher income taxpayers. The top 50% of income earners pay 96% of income taxes. On the other hand, the bottom 50% of income earners pay only about 3% of income taxes.
As President John F. Kennedy said, “a rising tide lifts all boats.” Tax increases, even on only one segment of the country, slow the economy and take money out the pockets of all Americans, even those not taxed directly. On the other hand, a tax code that allows Americans to keep more of what they earn helps us all.
Source:
http://www.ustreas.gov/press/releases/reports/factsheetwhopaysmostindividualincometaxes.update.pdf
http://www.heritage.org/Research/Taxes/wm327.cfm
When taxes are increased on the rich, the rich obviously have less money to spend on items like shares of our corporate jets. Perhaps, they will put more of their money into tax shelters or foreign investments where tax laws are more favorable.
If a rich businessman doesn’t get to buy his jet, who is hurt? The most obvious answer is my company and its employees. If my company doesn’t sell a jet share, then the salesman does not get a commission, additional pilots are not hired, and jobs for support employees such as dispatchers, schedulers, maintenance coordinators, and administrative workers are not created.
Equally obvious is the loss to the aircraft manufacturer. Manufacturing jobs may be lost as aircraft orders dwindle. This also applies to subcontractors who work sheet metal, electricians who build avionics, craftsmen who work wood and leather for aircraft interiors, and the manufacturers of the thousands of parts that are assembled together to create a working airplane.
The damage does not stop there, however. The rich guy will not fly his jet around the country. When he does not visit local airports, local businesses called Fixed Base Operators (FBOs) don’t sell him fuel. Local businesses do not sell him catered food for his trips. Local aircraft mechanics miss out on the opportunity to work on the airplane. Local and state governments lose tax revenue from the lost fuel sales and airport fees.
Because the non-owner may never visit many places that he would otherwise see, other local businesses will also lose revenue. Cars will not be rented or hired, hotel rooms will not be rented, and restaurants will not be patronized. Tourism will suffer as museums and other tourist attractions are not visited.
Because many trips on private jets are business trips and not pleasure trips, investment in local businesses may suffer also, especially in areas not served by airlines. A deal that would be made in person may not be consummated over the telephone. Difficulty in obtaining outside investment may cause local businesses to stagnate and not create new jobs, causing small towns to go into further decline.
The jobs that are lost or are never created are not the end. As each person loses his job or cannot find a new one, their troubles spread to others. As one person runs out of money, his inability to pay his bills or buy new products affects other people and businesses down the line. Businesses are forced to write off bad debt that they could have collected from an employed person. Sales fall because unemployed workers have less money to spend, causing businesses to cut back and hire fewer workers.
Ironically, as the economy slows in the aftermath of tax increases, the government takes in less tax revenue. This is because the slowing economy is shrinking. Revenues for businesses and incomes for individuals are falling, so a tax, even at a higher percentage, yields a smaller total revenue.
The good news is that, as we learn from the past, the opposite is also true. If we reduce taxes, then the economy grows and businesses thrive. When business thrives, jobs are created and incomes rise. This, in turn, leads to higher tax revenues for the government in spite of the fact that the government takes a smaller percentage of each American’s paycheck. This process has worked four times in the past hundred years during the 1920s (under Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon), the 1960s (President Kennedy), the 1980s (President Reagan), and the 2000s (President George W. Bush).
Additionally, President Bush’s tax cuts had the effect of shifting more of the tax burden to upper income taxpayers. The top one percent of income earners currently pays about 33% of all income taxes versus 32% before. This is because the tax rates were lowered for Americans of all tax brackets with lower income tax payers realizing a larger percentage decrease than higher income taxpayers. The top 50% of income earners pay 96% of income taxes. On the other hand, the bottom 50% of income earners pay only about 3% of income taxes.
As President John F. Kennedy said, “a rising tide lifts all boats.” Tax increases, even on only one segment of the country, slow the economy and take money out the pockets of all Americans, even those not taxed directly. On the other hand, a tax code that allows Americans to keep more of what they earn helps us all.
Source:
http://www.ustreas.gov/press/releases/reports/factsheetwhopaysmostindividualincometaxes.update.pdf
http://www.heritage.org/Research/Taxes/wm327.cfm
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
The Seventy Sevens of Daniel
24 "Seventy 'sevens' are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy.
25 "Know and understand this: From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven 'sevens,' and sixty-two 'sevens.' It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble. 26 After the sixty-two 'sevens,' the Anointed One will be cut off and will have nothing. The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed. 27 He will confirm a covenant with many for one 'seven.' In the middle of the 'seven' he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on a wing of the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him."
-Daniel 9:24-27
This passage is a part of the message the angel Gabriel brought to Daniel during the first year of the reign of Darius the Mede. Daniel was mourning the destruction of Jerusalem at the hands of the Babylonians in 586 BC.
The message that Gabriel brings is a prophecy of the restoration of Jerusalem and the coming of the Jewish Messiah, the “Anointed One.” The Jews were exiled from their homeland and forcibly assimilated into Babylonian culture. They looked to the promised Messiah as a political and military leader who would restore Israel as a nation.
One of the primary rules of prophecy is to read it literally when possible. The term “sevens” is obviously symbolic of a period of time. Days and months do not leave time for the fulfillment of the prophecy so they can be eliminated. There are a total of seventy sevens. There are seven sevens and sixty-two sevens (totaling sixty-nine sevens) between the order to restore Jerusalem and the coming of the Messiah (v. 25). An additional seven makes up the covenant between the ruler who destroys the city and sanctuary and the “many” (v. 27). This makes a total of seventy sevens.
If we assume that a “seven” is a seven-year period, then we have a total of 490 years (seventy times seven) for the prophecy to be fulfilled. This is remarkably close to the time that elapsed between the command to rebuild Jerusalem in 445 BC until the crucifixion of Jesus Christ in AD 32. Gabriel specifically mentioned three separate periods of sevens rather than a single period of seventy sevens.
The seven sevens (49 years) points to Cyrus, the Persian king who ended the Jewish captivity in 538 BC. Forty-nine years elapsed between the fall of Jerusalem (586 BC) and Cyrus’ decree (587-49=538). Interestingly, God calls Cyrus his “anointed” even though he did not acknowledge God (Isaiah 45:1-4).
The sixty-two sevens is equivalent to 434 years. Some scholars theorize that there is a gap between the seven sevens and sixty-two sevens. A logical starting point for this period would be 440 BC, when Nehemiah went to Babylon to start the period of rebuilding the city walls of Jerusalem. 434 years after 440 BC points at 6 BC. 6 BC is a reasonable time for the birth of Jesus, since Herod is widely believed to have died in 4 BC.
A second possible interpretation points at the death and resurrection of Jesus. When combined, the period of seven sevens plus sixty-two sevens equals a total of 483 years. This 483-year period occurs between the order to rebuild Jerusalem and arrival of the Anointed One. Artaxerxes issued a decree to rebuild Jerusalem in 444 BC, which started the clock on this 483-year period (Nehemiah 2:1-8).
Before we go to the next step, we must apply a conversion to account for differences in the ancient Jewish calendar and our own. Historians believe that ancient Jews used a calendar of 360 days and fixed months of 30 days each. They would apply an extra five days at some point during the year.
483 years multiplied by 360 days per year gives us a total of 173,880 days. Our modern calendar uses 365.25 days per year, so to find a meaningful number of years for the prophecy, we must divide 173,880 days by 365.25 days per year. The result is 476 modern years.
If we start with 443 BC, the year following the decree, and add 476 years according to our modern calendar, we arrive at AD 33. In that year, Jesus Christ, Yeshua Messiah, was crucified, “cut off,” and, according to the Gospels, rose from the dead and ascended to Heaven.
Josh McDowell makes the point that Jesus was reported to have ridden into Jerusalem prior to his execution on a donkey. Another messianic prophecy in Zechariah 9:9 foretells that the king will one day ride into Jerusalem on a donkey. Jesus fulfills this prophecy in Matthew 21:5, Mark 11:6-7, Luke 19:30-35, and John 12:14-15.
The remainder of the seventy sevens has not yet occurred. The single seven that is the duration of a covenant between a destructive ruler and “the many.” The identity of the ruler is linked to the people who destroyed the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem in AD 70, the Romans.
This ruler is seemingly linked with the “little horn” of Daniel 7:25 through the term “time, times, and half a time.” This points to a time period equivalent to “middle of the seven” in verse 27. It is also equivalent to the 42 months granted to the “beast from the sea” in Revelation 13:5. All three verses refer to a three and one half year period. All three verses also are commonly understood to refer to the demonic ruler commonly known as the Antichrist.
The belief that the ruler is the Antichrist is further supported by the fact that Gabriel tells Daniel that the ruler will end sacrifice in the Temple and set up an “abomination that causes desolation” in the Temple. This prophecy is partly understood through Antiochus Epiphanes, a Syrian king who occupied Jerusalem in 168 BC. He entered the Temple’s Holy of Holies, defiled the altar, plundered the Temple’s treasures, and rededicated the Temple itself to the Roman god, Jupiter.
Antiochus Epiphanes cannot be the ruler foretold in Daniel, though, because he did not make and violate a treaty with “the many,” Israel. We can, however, expect the latter-day ruler to take blasphemous actions similar to those of Antiochus. Both Jesus (Matthew 24) and Paul (2 Thessalonians 2) point to this abomination as a sign of the approaching end times. The final seven is commonly referred to as the Tribulation Period.
Sources:
Biblegateway.com
http://www.aboutbibleprophecy.com/weeks.htm
http://www.biblicalstudies.com/bstudy/eschatology/daniel.htm
http://latter-rain.com/Israel/antep.htm
25 "Know and understand this: From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven 'sevens,' and sixty-two 'sevens.' It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble. 26 After the sixty-two 'sevens,' the Anointed One will be cut off and will have nothing. The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed. 27 He will confirm a covenant with many for one 'seven.' In the middle of the 'seven' he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on a wing of the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him."
-Daniel 9:24-27
This passage is a part of the message the angel Gabriel brought to Daniel during the first year of the reign of Darius the Mede. Daniel was mourning the destruction of Jerusalem at the hands of the Babylonians in 586 BC.
The message that Gabriel brings is a prophecy of the restoration of Jerusalem and the coming of the Jewish Messiah, the “Anointed One.” The Jews were exiled from their homeland and forcibly assimilated into Babylonian culture. They looked to the promised Messiah as a political and military leader who would restore Israel as a nation.
One of the primary rules of prophecy is to read it literally when possible. The term “sevens” is obviously symbolic of a period of time. Days and months do not leave time for the fulfillment of the prophecy so they can be eliminated. There are a total of seventy sevens. There are seven sevens and sixty-two sevens (totaling sixty-nine sevens) between the order to restore Jerusalem and the coming of the Messiah (v. 25). An additional seven makes up the covenant between the ruler who destroys the city and sanctuary and the “many” (v. 27). This makes a total of seventy sevens.
If we assume that a “seven” is a seven-year period, then we have a total of 490 years (seventy times seven) for the prophecy to be fulfilled. This is remarkably close to the time that elapsed between the command to rebuild Jerusalem in 445 BC until the crucifixion of Jesus Christ in AD 32. Gabriel specifically mentioned three separate periods of sevens rather than a single period of seventy sevens.
The seven sevens (49 years) points to Cyrus, the Persian king who ended the Jewish captivity in 538 BC. Forty-nine years elapsed between the fall of Jerusalem (586 BC) and Cyrus’ decree (587-49=538). Interestingly, God calls Cyrus his “anointed” even though he did not acknowledge God (Isaiah 45:1-4).
The sixty-two sevens is equivalent to 434 years. Some scholars theorize that there is a gap between the seven sevens and sixty-two sevens. A logical starting point for this period would be 440 BC, when Nehemiah went to Babylon to start the period of rebuilding the city walls of Jerusalem. 434 years after 440 BC points at 6 BC. 6 BC is a reasonable time for the birth of Jesus, since Herod is widely believed to have died in 4 BC.
A second possible interpretation points at the death and resurrection of Jesus. When combined, the period of seven sevens plus sixty-two sevens equals a total of 483 years. This 483-year period occurs between the order to rebuild Jerusalem and arrival of the Anointed One. Artaxerxes issued a decree to rebuild Jerusalem in 444 BC, which started the clock on this 483-year period (Nehemiah 2:1-8).
Before we go to the next step, we must apply a conversion to account for differences in the ancient Jewish calendar and our own. Historians believe that ancient Jews used a calendar of 360 days and fixed months of 30 days each. They would apply an extra five days at some point during the year.
483 years multiplied by 360 days per year gives us a total of 173,880 days. Our modern calendar uses 365.25 days per year, so to find a meaningful number of years for the prophecy, we must divide 173,880 days by 365.25 days per year. The result is 476 modern years.
If we start with 443 BC, the year following the decree, and add 476 years according to our modern calendar, we arrive at AD 33. In that year, Jesus Christ, Yeshua Messiah, was crucified, “cut off,” and, according to the Gospels, rose from the dead and ascended to Heaven.
Josh McDowell makes the point that Jesus was reported to have ridden into Jerusalem prior to his execution on a donkey. Another messianic prophecy in Zechariah 9:9 foretells that the king will one day ride into Jerusalem on a donkey. Jesus fulfills this prophecy in Matthew 21:5, Mark 11:6-7, Luke 19:30-35, and John 12:14-15.
The remainder of the seventy sevens has not yet occurred. The single seven that is the duration of a covenant between a destructive ruler and “the many.” The identity of the ruler is linked to the people who destroyed the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem in AD 70, the Romans.
This ruler is seemingly linked with the “little horn” of Daniel 7:25 through the term “time, times, and half a time.” This points to a time period equivalent to “middle of the seven” in verse 27. It is also equivalent to the 42 months granted to the “beast from the sea” in Revelation 13:5. All three verses refer to a three and one half year period. All three verses also are commonly understood to refer to the demonic ruler commonly known as the Antichrist.
The belief that the ruler is the Antichrist is further supported by the fact that Gabriel tells Daniel that the ruler will end sacrifice in the Temple and set up an “abomination that causes desolation” in the Temple. This prophecy is partly understood through Antiochus Epiphanes, a Syrian king who occupied Jerusalem in 168 BC. He entered the Temple’s Holy of Holies, defiled the altar, plundered the Temple’s treasures, and rededicated the Temple itself to the Roman god, Jupiter.
Antiochus Epiphanes cannot be the ruler foretold in Daniel, though, because he did not make and violate a treaty with “the many,” Israel. We can, however, expect the latter-day ruler to take blasphemous actions similar to those of Antiochus. Both Jesus (Matthew 24) and Paul (2 Thessalonians 2) point to this abomination as a sign of the approaching end times. The final seven is commonly referred to as the Tribulation Period.
Sources:
Biblegateway.com
http://www.aboutbibleprophecy.com/weeks.htm
http://www.biblicalstudies.com/bstudy/eschatology/daniel.htm
http://latter-rain.com/Israel/antep.htm
Monday, June 30, 2008
A Brief History of the Modern State of Israel
The nation of Israel was founded by Joshua over three thousand years ago. Yet in 2008, the modern nation of Israel celebrated its sixtieth anniversary. In 586 BC, Israel ceased to exist for over twenty-five centuries until a remarkable series of events led to its reformation in 1948.
The story of modern Israel begins in the late 19th century. During this period, Palestine, the name of the Roman province that incorporated ancient Israel, was ruled by the Ottoman Turks. Jews had been scattered throughout the world for thousands of years. As pogroms and persecution increased in Europe in the 1800s, some Jews began to immigrate into Turkish Palestine. These movements of Jews were referred to as “aliyahs.”
Jewish settlers initially purchased uncultivated and swamp land in Palestine. They worked the land and drained the swamps to create arable land. In these early days, Jews and Arabs peacefully coexisted in most cases, although the Jews were still persecuted by the Ottoman Turks.
Theodore Herzl was an early proponent of Zionism, the belief that a new Jewish state should be created. After covering the Dreyfus trial in France, Herzl was shocked at the rampant anti-Semitism in his country and promoted the aliyahs. In the midst of Jewish immigration to Palestine, Tel Aviv was founded as a Jewish city in 1909.
Chaim Weizmann was a Zionist contemporary of Herzl. Weizmann was also a chemist. During WWI, Weizmann worked with the British against the Central Powers. First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill, charged Weizmann with developing a process for producing acetone, which was needed to manufacture naval artillery shells. Weizmann’s scientific success brought him, and Zionism, to the attention of the British government.
The Ottoman Empire, which ruled Palestine, was allied with Germany during WWI. Weizmann’s influence eventually helped convince the British that establishing a Jewish homeland in Palestine would help convince Jews to join the fight against Germany and the Turks. The Allies also planned to dismember the losing empires to ensure that they would not be able to wage war in the future.
In 1917, the British formally issued the Balfour Declaration, which supported the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine. The declaration stated that British government "view with favour" the establishment in Palestine of "a national home for the Jewish people" on the conditions that "nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine" or "the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country."
While several thousand Jews in Palestine were inducted into the Ottoman army, many others assisted the British. A group called the Gideonites spied for the British. In 1915, the Zion Mule Corps was founded to serve with the British army in Gallipoli. Two years later, a Jewish Legion, the 38th King’s Fusiliers, was formed from Zion Mule Corps veterans and other Palestinian Jewish volunteers. The Jewish Legion served with General Allenby in Egypt and Jordan. Later, the 39th and 40th King’s Fusiliers were formed with Jewish volunteers from other countries.
After the defeat of Germany and the Ottomans, Weizmann signed an agreement with future Saudi king, Faisal ibn Hussein. The Faisal-Weizmann agreements set the stage for a Jewish state in Palestine and a separate Arab state. The borders would be determined by the Paris Peace Conference and both sides agreed to allow the British to arbitrate disputes.
In 1920, the Allies signed a peace treaty with Turkey. The British were assigned a mandate to administer Palestine and Transjordan, including the responsibility for implementing the Balfour Declaration. The Turks had kept thousands of troops in Palestine, but British forces numbered only in the hundreds. These few troops and police would not be enough to keep the peace in the years that followed.
Soon relations between the Jews and the Arabs began to break down. Haj Amin al-Husseini, nephew of Jerusalem’s mayor, organized Arabs into groups of fedayeen “one who sacrifices himself” to attack Jews, beginning in 1919. Haj Amin helped to incite Arab mobs to riot in Jerusalem in April 1920. Six Jews were killed and 200 injured during the riots. The death toll would have been higher if Vladimir Jabotinsky had not already begun organizing a Jewish defense organization, the Haganah (self-defense).
After the riots, the British arrested both Arabs and Jews, including Jabotinsky. Haj Amin escaped to Jordan and was convicted in absentia by a British court. Jabotinsky was sentenced to fifteen years at hard labor followed by deportation for illegal possession of weapons.
A year later, Haj Amin was pardoned and appointed Mufti of Jerusalem for life by the British High Commissioner. This meant that Haj Amin was the pre-eminent Muslim scholar in Jerusalem. He used this position to consolidate power. No Muslim who did not support the Mufti could attain a position of influence. The Mufti killed Arab dissidents as well as Jews.
The Mufti also pressed the British for an end to Jewish immigration. In the wake of the riots, Colonial Secretary Winston Churchill issued a White Paper in 1922, which placed strict limits on Jewish immigration.
More riots occurred in 1925 and 1926 after Haj Amin spread rumors that the Jews were seeking to rebuild the Jewish temple on the site of the al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock. British troops intervened after the fighting spread as far as Hebron and the Gaza Strip.
Again in 1929, Arabs were incited to riot by rumors that Jews had killed two Arabs as well as false rumors that Jews were attempting to defame Muslim holy places. 133 Jews were killed, primarily in the Old City of Jerusalem and Hebron.
In 1936, Haj Amin and six prominent Arab leaders formed the Arab Higher Committee. The Committee protested British rule and Jewish settlement by launching a full-scale revolt. The Arabs waged a war of terror against the British and Jews for three years, while Haj Amin continued to consolidate power through murder and intimidation of Jews and Arab resisters. In 1937, the Mufti went so far as to express solidarity with Hitler’s Germany and appealed for Germany to arm the Arabs and help stop Jewish immigration.
Haj Amin’s role in the Arab revolts, together with an assassination attempt on the Inspector General of the Palestine Police Force led the British to exile him again, this time to Syria. The Arab Higher Committee was disbanded and the British brought in massive reinforcements to crush the revolt, which lasted until 1939.
The Arab revolt led to the establishment of the Peel Commission to study the relationship of the Jews and Arabs with respect to the establishment of a Jewish homeland. The 1937 report recommended a limit of 12,000 Jewish immigrants per year for five years and the development of a plan for partition of Palestine. The report also recommended a population transfer due to the desire of Arabs for independence and their hatred and fear of Jewish state.
In response to war clouds in Europe and a desire to pacify the Arabs, the British issued the McDonald White Paper in 1939. The White Paper reversed the Balfour Declaration and stated that it was not British policy to form a Jewish state in Palestine. It also restricted Jewish immigration to 75,000 over five years, restricted land transfers from Arabs to Jews, and called for the establishment of a joint Arab-Jewish state.
During World War II, Jews in Nazi-occupied Europe were almost exterminated. Free Jews often joined Allied armies in the fight against fascism. The Jewish Brigade of the British Army, formed in 1944, was composed entirely of Jews. All the while, restrictive British and US immigration policies cost many Jews their lives. Unable to emigrate from Nazi areas, millions were shot and gassed as part of the Final Solution.
In contrast, Mufti Haj Amin spent the war in Germany. The Mufti met with Hitler several times and played a role in the Holocaust. He sought to keep Germany from allowing Hungarian Jews from emigrating and personally intervened when Adolf Eichman tried to orchestrate and exchange of German POWs for Jewish children with British government. The children were sent to death camps instead. Haj Amin personally visited these death camps, including Auschwitz. He also made numerous propaganda broadcasts throughout the war and encouraged Muslims, including those of German occupied Bosnia and Kosovo, to join Nazi units such as the Hanjar 13th Waffen SS division.
Pro-German sympathies were found in Arab nations throughout the Middle East as well. Even after the war was over, Arab nations became havens for Nazi war criminals on the run. These included the SS general in charge of the murder of Ukrainian Jews, who became Gamal Abdul Nasser’s bodyguard and Alois Brunner, who became a senior advisor to the Syrian senior military staff.
After the war, surviving Jews flocked to Palestine regardless of limits on immigration. The postwar illegal immigration to Palestine was referred to as the Aliyah Bet. Several pogroms, including one in Kielce, Poland in 1946 in which 46 Holocaust survivors were murdered, increased the movement from Europe. Many of the Aliyah Bet ships were intercepted by the British, who detained the Jewish immigrants on Cyprus.
As detentions of Holocaust survivors became known around the world, public opinion turned against the British. US President Harry Truman was instrumental in changing British policy. He pressured the British to allow the immigration of 100,000 European Jews. Truman also pressured the British to turn over the Palestine problem to the UN.
As Jewish immigrants flooded into Palestine, the Jews formed a United Resistance Movement from the Haganah, the Irgun, and the Lehi in 1945. The URM resisted Arab violence as well British rule. Public reaction to the kidnapping of British soldiers and the bombing of the King David Hotel, British military headquarters, eventually caused the URM to disband at the request of Chaim Weizmann. The Haganah complied with Weizmann’s request to suspend operations, but not the Irgun or the Lehi.
As violence increased, the British decided to ask the newly formed United Nations to help solve the problem. On November 29, 1947, the UN General Assembly voted to partition Palestine into two separate nations, one predominantly Jewish and one predominantly Arab. President Truman again played a prominent role in gaining passage of the partition by influencing Latin American countries to vote in favor of the resolution.
The partition was accepted by the Jews, but immediately rejected by the Arabs. Jewish forces were vastly smaller, but better organized, than the Arab forces. By the spring of 1948, the Jewish forces had secured most of the territory that made up the Jewish partition.
On May 15, 1948, the British evacuated Palestine and Jewish leaders announced the formation of the nation of Israel. Shortly after, Israel was invaded by the combined armies of Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Iraq. Both the United States and the Soviet Union immediately recognized Israel. Fighting was initially heavy, but as the Israel Defense Force (IDF) began to receive shipments of supplies from Czechoslovakia, the Arab armies were beaten back. Eventually, the IDF was able to secure much larger borders for Israel than the UN had originally allotted.
A controversial moment in the war occurred during the Battle of Deir Yassin. Irgun and Lehi forces attacked Arab troops at Deir Yassin on April 9, 1948. What happened is shrouded in controversy, but both sides agree that between 100 and 250 Arab civilians were killed. It is unclear whether they were killed accidentally in heavy fighting or if they were murdered by the Jewish soldiers. The incident has been frequently used as Arab propaganda ever since.
The Israeli War of Independence or War of Liberation ended with armistice agreements signed in early 1949 with Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan. Israel was established as a Jewish homeland, while, ironically, the remaining areas of the Arab partition were annexed by Jordan and Egypt. Palestinians refer to the war as al Nakba, “the Catastrophe.”
Sources:
http://www.eretzyisroel.org/~jkatz/palestine.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel
http://www.jewishmag.com/60mag/weizmann/weizmann.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balfour_Declaration_of_1917
http://www.answers.com/topic/faisal-weizmann-agreement
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/riots29.html
http://www.palestinefacts.org/pf_mandate_grand_mufti.php
http://www.answers.com/topic/palestine-arab-revolt
http://youtube.com/watch?v=6W4dsvz5P-8&feature=related
http://www.palestinefacts.org/pf_mandate_peel.php
http://palestinefacts.org/pf_mandate_whitepaper_1939.php
http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005459http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10007255
http://www.israel-mfa.gov.il/MFA/Facts+About+Israel/Israel+in+Maps/1947+UN+Partition+Plan.htm
http://www.merip.org/palestine-israel_primer/un-partition-plan-pal-isr.html
http://www.peacefaq.com/deiryassin.html
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/deir_yassin.html
http://www.historyguy.com/arab_israeli_wars.html
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/myths/mf2.html
The story of modern Israel begins in the late 19th century. During this period, Palestine, the name of the Roman province that incorporated ancient Israel, was ruled by the Ottoman Turks. Jews had been scattered throughout the world for thousands of years. As pogroms and persecution increased in Europe in the 1800s, some Jews began to immigrate into Turkish Palestine. These movements of Jews were referred to as “aliyahs.”
Jewish settlers initially purchased uncultivated and swamp land in Palestine. They worked the land and drained the swamps to create arable land. In these early days, Jews and Arabs peacefully coexisted in most cases, although the Jews were still persecuted by the Ottoman Turks.
Theodore Herzl was an early proponent of Zionism, the belief that a new Jewish state should be created. After covering the Dreyfus trial in France, Herzl was shocked at the rampant anti-Semitism in his country and promoted the aliyahs. In the midst of Jewish immigration to Palestine, Tel Aviv was founded as a Jewish city in 1909.
Chaim Weizmann was a Zionist contemporary of Herzl. Weizmann was also a chemist. During WWI, Weizmann worked with the British against the Central Powers. First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill, charged Weizmann with developing a process for producing acetone, which was needed to manufacture naval artillery shells. Weizmann’s scientific success brought him, and Zionism, to the attention of the British government.
The Ottoman Empire, which ruled Palestine, was allied with Germany during WWI. Weizmann’s influence eventually helped convince the British that establishing a Jewish homeland in Palestine would help convince Jews to join the fight against Germany and the Turks. The Allies also planned to dismember the losing empires to ensure that they would not be able to wage war in the future.
In 1917, the British formally issued the Balfour Declaration, which supported the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine. The declaration stated that British government "view with favour" the establishment in Palestine of "a national home for the Jewish people" on the conditions that "nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine" or "the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country."
While several thousand Jews in Palestine were inducted into the Ottoman army, many others assisted the British. A group called the Gideonites spied for the British. In 1915, the Zion Mule Corps was founded to serve with the British army in Gallipoli. Two years later, a Jewish Legion, the 38th King’s Fusiliers, was formed from Zion Mule Corps veterans and other Palestinian Jewish volunteers. The Jewish Legion served with General Allenby in Egypt and Jordan. Later, the 39th and 40th King’s Fusiliers were formed with Jewish volunteers from other countries.
After the defeat of Germany and the Ottomans, Weizmann signed an agreement with future Saudi king, Faisal ibn Hussein. The Faisal-Weizmann agreements set the stage for a Jewish state in Palestine and a separate Arab state. The borders would be determined by the Paris Peace Conference and both sides agreed to allow the British to arbitrate disputes.
In 1920, the Allies signed a peace treaty with Turkey. The British were assigned a mandate to administer Palestine and Transjordan, including the responsibility for implementing the Balfour Declaration. The Turks had kept thousands of troops in Palestine, but British forces numbered only in the hundreds. These few troops and police would not be enough to keep the peace in the years that followed.
Soon relations between the Jews and the Arabs began to break down. Haj Amin al-Husseini, nephew of Jerusalem’s mayor, organized Arabs into groups of fedayeen “one who sacrifices himself” to attack Jews, beginning in 1919. Haj Amin helped to incite Arab mobs to riot in Jerusalem in April 1920. Six Jews were killed and 200 injured during the riots. The death toll would have been higher if Vladimir Jabotinsky had not already begun organizing a Jewish defense organization, the Haganah (self-defense).
After the riots, the British arrested both Arabs and Jews, including Jabotinsky. Haj Amin escaped to Jordan and was convicted in absentia by a British court. Jabotinsky was sentenced to fifteen years at hard labor followed by deportation for illegal possession of weapons.
A year later, Haj Amin was pardoned and appointed Mufti of Jerusalem for life by the British High Commissioner. This meant that Haj Amin was the pre-eminent Muslim scholar in Jerusalem. He used this position to consolidate power. No Muslim who did not support the Mufti could attain a position of influence. The Mufti killed Arab dissidents as well as Jews.
The Mufti also pressed the British for an end to Jewish immigration. In the wake of the riots, Colonial Secretary Winston Churchill issued a White Paper in 1922, which placed strict limits on Jewish immigration.
More riots occurred in 1925 and 1926 after Haj Amin spread rumors that the Jews were seeking to rebuild the Jewish temple on the site of the al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock. British troops intervened after the fighting spread as far as Hebron and the Gaza Strip.
Again in 1929, Arabs were incited to riot by rumors that Jews had killed two Arabs as well as false rumors that Jews were attempting to defame Muslim holy places. 133 Jews were killed, primarily in the Old City of Jerusalem and Hebron.
In 1936, Haj Amin and six prominent Arab leaders formed the Arab Higher Committee. The Committee protested British rule and Jewish settlement by launching a full-scale revolt. The Arabs waged a war of terror against the British and Jews for three years, while Haj Amin continued to consolidate power through murder and intimidation of Jews and Arab resisters. In 1937, the Mufti went so far as to express solidarity with Hitler’s Germany and appealed for Germany to arm the Arabs and help stop Jewish immigration.
Haj Amin’s role in the Arab revolts, together with an assassination attempt on the Inspector General of the Palestine Police Force led the British to exile him again, this time to Syria. The Arab Higher Committee was disbanded and the British brought in massive reinforcements to crush the revolt, which lasted until 1939.
The Arab revolt led to the establishment of the Peel Commission to study the relationship of the Jews and Arabs with respect to the establishment of a Jewish homeland. The 1937 report recommended a limit of 12,000 Jewish immigrants per year for five years and the development of a plan for partition of Palestine. The report also recommended a population transfer due to the desire of Arabs for independence and their hatred and fear of Jewish state.
In response to war clouds in Europe and a desire to pacify the Arabs, the British issued the McDonald White Paper in 1939. The White Paper reversed the Balfour Declaration and stated that it was not British policy to form a Jewish state in Palestine. It also restricted Jewish immigration to 75,000 over five years, restricted land transfers from Arabs to Jews, and called for the establishment of a joint Arab-Jewish state.
During World War II, Jews in Nazi-occupied Europe were almost exterminated. Free Jews often joined Allied armies in the fight against fascism. The Jewish Brigade of the British Army, formed in 1944, was composed entirely of Jews. All the while, restrictive British and US immigration policies cost many Jews their lives. Unable to emigrate from Nazi areas, millions were shot and gassed as part of the Final Solution.
In contrast, Mufti Haj Amin spent the war in Germany. The Mufti met with Hitler several times and played a role in the Holocaust. He sought to keep Germany from allowing Hungarian Jews from emigrating and personally intervened when Adolf Eichman tried to orchestrate and exchange of German POWs for Jewish children with British government. The children were sent to death camps instead. Haj Amin personally visited these death camps, including Auschwitz. He also made numerous propaganda broadcasts throughout the war and encouraged Muslims, including those of German occupied Bosnia and Kosovo, to join Nazi units such as the Hanjar 13th Waffen SS division.
Pro-German sympathies were found in Arab nations throughout the Middle East as well. Even after the war was over, Arab nations became havens for Nazi war criminals on the run. These included the SS general in charge of the murder of Ukrainian Jews, who became Gamal Abdul Nasser’s bodyguard and Alois Brunner, who became a senior advisor to the Syrian senior military staff.
After the war, surviving Jews flocked to Palestine regardless of limits on immigration. The postwar illegal immigration to Palestine was referred to as the Aliyah Bet. Several pogroms, including one in Kielce, Poland in 1946 in which 46 Holocaust survivors were murdered, increased the movement from Europe. Many of the Aliyah Bet ships were intercepted by the British, who detained the Jewish immigrants on Cyprus.
As detentions of Holocaust survivors became known around the world, public opinion turned against the British. US President Harry Truman was instrumental in changing British policy. He pressured the British to allow the immigration of 100,000 European Jews. Truman also pressured the British to turn over the Palestine problem to the UN.
As Jewish immigrants flooded into Palestine, the Jews formed a United Resistance Movement from the Haganah, the Irgun, and the Lehi in 1945. The URM resisted Arab violence as well British rule. Public reaction to the kidnapping of British soldiers and the bombing of the King David Hotel, British military headquarters, eventually caused the URM to disband at the request of Chaim Weizmann. The Haganah complied with Weizmann’s request to suspend operations, but not the Irgun or the Lehi.
As violence increased, the British decided to ask the newly formed United Nations to help solve the problem. On November 29, 1947, the UN General Assembly voted to partition Palestine into two separate nations, one predominantly Jewish and one predominantly Arab. President Truman again played a prominent role in gaining passage of the partition by influencing Latin American countries to vote in favor of the resolution.
The partition was accepted by the Jews, but immediately rejected by the Arabs. Jewish forces were vastly smaller, but better organized, than the Arab forces. By the spring of 1948, the Jewish forces had secured most of the territory that made up the Jewish partition.
On May 15, 1948, the British evacuated Palestine and Jewish leaders announced the formation of the nation of Israel. Shortly after, Israel was invaded by the combined armies of Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Iraq. Both the United States and the Soviet Union immediately recognized Israel. Fighting was initially heavy, but as the Israel Defense Force (IDF) began to receive shipments of supplies from Czechoslovakia, the Arab armies were beaten back. Eventually, the IDF was able to secure much larger borders for Israel than the UN had originally allotted.
A controversial moment in the war occurred during the Battle of Deir Yassin. Irgun and Lehi forces attacked Arab troops at Deir Yassin on April 9, 1948. What happened is shrouded in controversy, but both sides agree that between 100 and 250 Arab civilians were killed. It is unclear whether they were killed accidentally in heavy fighting or if they were murdered by the Jewish soldiers. The incident has been frequently used as Arab propaganda ever since.
The Israeli War of Independence or War of Liberation ended with armistice agreements signed in early 1949 with Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan. Israel was established as a Jewish homeland, while, ironically, the remaining areas of the Arab partition were annexed by Jordan and Egypt. Palestinians refer to the war as al Nakba, “the Catastrophe.”
Sources:
http://www.eretzyisroel.org/~jkatz/palestine.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel
http://www.jewishmag.com/60mag/weizmann/weizmann.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balfour_Declaration_of_1917
http://www.answers.com/topic/faisal-weizmann-agreement
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/riots29.html
http://www.palestinefacts.org/pf_mandate_grand_mufti.php
http://www.answers.com/topic/palestine-arab-revolt
http://youtube.com/watch?v=6W4dsvz5P-8&feature=related
http://www.palestinefacts.org/pf_mandate_peel.php
http://palestinefacts.org/pf_mandate_whitepaper_1939.php
http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005459http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10007255
http://www.israel-mfa.gov.il/MFA/Facts+About+Israel/Israel+in+Maps/1947+UN+Partition+Plan.htm
http://www.merip.org/palestine-israel_primer/un-partition-plan-pal-isr.html
http://www.peacefaq.com/deiryassin.html
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/deir_yassin.html
http://www.historyguy.com/arab_israeli_wars.html
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/myths/mf2.html
Monday, June 9, 2008
Tips For Creating Extra Room In Your Budget
With gas prices rising, many American families are starting to feel a financial pinch. My family and I have experienced a pinch for several years now due to layoffs and slow growth in the airline industry (I made less than $15,000 in 2005). We have learned several lessons about how save money.
First, take a close look at your spending. Most of us spend a lot of money on things that we don't really need. For example, do you really need a fancy new cellphone for $200 when you can get a free one? Do you really need all those extra cable channels? My cable company offers a minimum package of network channels for about $8 per month, a savings of $45 over the next package. Buying bottled water and $3 coffees also adds up quickly and is not necessary. Go to the library instead of Blockbuster and the bookstore. Most of us can find some areas where we can trim the fat.
Cars cost Americans a lot of money. Keep your old car after it is paid off. This will free up the amount of your car payment ($300-500), but that is not all. With your car paid off, you can reduce your insurance and drop the expensive collision coverage, saving more money. By shopping around for gas, you can also save money. Visit http://autos.msn.com/everyday/gasstations.aspx?zip=& src=Netx to check gas prices in your neighborhood.
Another great source of savings is eating at home. A typical restaurant restaurant meal for my family of three is at least $15, even at a fast food restaurant. Multiply that by several times per week and it adds up quickly. Clip coupons for what you need and browse local supermarket sale papers. Many neighborhoods have a discount grocery store, such as Sav-A-Lot. Also, buy generic brands of food. The generic brands meet the same FDA standards as more expensive brands. In most cases, you can't taste the difference. In some cases, generic brands actually taste better!
Finally, a long term solution to solving your credit crunch is to get out of debt. It takes time, but paying off credit cards and loans will free up hundreds or thousands of dollars each month. It will also relieve the stress of wondering where your next payment is coming from. It will also enable you to start saving so that you won't feel the pinch in the future.
First, take a close look at your spending. Most of us spend a lot of money on things that we don't really need. For example, do you really need a fancy new cellphone for $200 when you can get a free one? Do you really need all those extra cable channels? My cable company offers a minimum package of network channels for about $8 per month, a savings of $45 over the next package. Buying bottled water and $3 coffees also adds up quickly and is not necessary. Go to the library instead of Blockbuster and the bookstore. Most of us can find some areas where we can trim the fat.
Cars cost Americans a lot of money. Keep your old car after it is paid off. This will free up the amount of your car payment ($300-500), but that is not all. With your car paid off, you can reduce your insurance and drop the expensive collision coverage, saving more money. By shopping around for gas, you can also save money. Visit http://autos.msn.com/everyday/gasstations.aspx?zip=& src=Netx to check gas prices in your neighborhood.
Another great source of savings is eating at home. A typical restaurant restaurant meal for my family of three is at least $15, even at a fast food restaurant. Multiply that by several times per week and it adds up quickly. Clip coupons for what you need and browse local supermarket sale papers. Many neighborhoods have a discount grocery store, such as Sav-A-Lot. Also, buy generic brands of food. The generic brands meet the same FDA standards as more expensive brands. In most cases, you can't taste the difference. In some cases, generic brands actually taste better!
Finally, a long term solution to solving your credit crunch is to get out of debt. It takes time, but paying off credit cards and loans will free up hundreds or thousands of dollars each month. It will also relieve the stress of wondering where your next payment is coming from. It will also enable you to start saving so that you won't feel the pinch in the future.
Friday, June 6, 2008
Coping With Record High Fuel Prices
Record fuel prices have Americans, as well as drivers around the world, feeling gas pains at the pump. High oil prices also drive up the cost of many other items due to production and delivery costs. High gas prices are certain to be a major issue in this year's elections.
Currently, the high price of oil reflects increasing demand around the world, particularly from developing countries such as India and China, as well as constraints on supply. Supply is limited by the high cost of exploration for new oil fields and bureaucratic limitations on opening new refineries.
While the high cost of gasoline is a problem for many, there are a few groups who benefit from high price of oil. Oil producing countries reap huge profits from expensive oil. Environmental groups seeking to reduce oil consumption have sought to artificially drive the price of oil even higher by increasing gas taxes. Alternative energy companies are an attractive investment when the price of oil is high.
For groups who seek to keep the price of oil high, there are several courses of action. First, they should work to keep demand high by discouraging conservation. Drivers should be encouraged to not to carpool or combine trips. Drivers should also be told not to slow down. Driving over 60 mph dramatically increases fuel consumption, especially in gas guzzling SUVs. The effective cost of gasoline increases by about twenty cents per gallon for each five miles per hour over 60 mph. For example, driving 70 mph means that you may as well pay an extra forty cents per gallon to fill up your tank. Not maintaining cars and keeping tires properly inflated also increases fuel consumption.
Keeping demand high is also accomplished by preventing the adoption of practical alternate sources of energy. Many sources of energy that are wildly popular hold little promise for a market the size of the United States.
Brazil has become almost totally energy independent through the use of ethanol-based fuels and many would like for the US to emulate their model. The problem is that Brazilian ethanol is sugar-based while only corn-based ethanol is widely available in the US. Corn ethanol is not as efficient as sugar ethanol. It actually takes more energy to produce and distribute corn ethanol than the ethanol itself provides. Additionally, it would take an area roughly the size of New England to provide enough ethanol to meet American needs. Finally, diverting corn to ethanol drives up food prices, which means that consumers would simply trade expensive gas for expensive food.
Solar and wind power are trendy sources alternate energy, but neither is ready to supplant oil as the primary engine of the world economy. Both require large capital investments in infrastructure and both are subject to changing weather. In the future, better means of storing large quantities of electricity and cheaper solar collectors and windmills may make solar and wind power more attractive, but presently they are not cost-effective or practical.
To keep gas prices high, consumers should also make certain that the supply of oil does not increase. The most effective way of doing this is by continuing to elect politicians who make it difficult to explore and drill for oil domestically in the United States. Current US policies prevent drilling in much of Alaska, the Gulf of Mexico, and federal lands in the continental US. These areas hold 635 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, enough to supply 60 million homes for 100 years, and 112 billion barrels of oil, enough to supply US needs for about 60 years.
Additionally, Congress and state governments are jointly responsible for high taxes on gasoline. Taxes on gasoline make up about 15% of the cost of a gallon, while oil company profits only account for about 4%. A reduction in gasoline taxes would provide relief at the gas pump for American drivers, and some presidential candidates are calling for a gas tax moratorium. Others are calling for increases in the gas tax, however, arguing that higher prices will decrease demand and spur conservation.
Government red tape also contributes to the high cost of gas. Environmental regulations make it a difficult and expensive proposition to build refineries to convert oil into gasoline. The last US refinery was built in the 1970s, although a few new refineries are under construction.
Environmental regulations also require that refineries manufacture expensive blends of gasoline in certain areas and in the summer to decrease pollution. Changing formulas is expensive and requires the refinery to stop production to make the changes. Making fewer types of gasoline would lower the cost and allow more gasoline to be produced.
Government regulations also slow the construction of nuclear power plants, the most practical form of alternate energy currently available. Advances in nuclear plant design allow nuclear power to be safe, clean and cheap. France currently supplies about 80% of its energy needs through nuclear power. Environmental groups and government regulations make it difficult to build nuclear plants in the US, however.
In short, there are two ways to lower the price of gasoline: by either increasing supply or decreasing demand. As long as people around the world continue to use large quantities of oil and limiting oil exploration and drilling, oil prices will continue to stay high.
Currently, the high price of oil reflects increasing demand around the world, particularly from developing countries such as India and China, as well as constraints on supply. Supply is limited by the high cost of exploration for new oil fields and bureaucratic limitations on opening new refineries.
While the high cost of gasoline is a problem for many, there are a few groups who benefit from high price of oil. Oil producing countries reap huge profits from expensive oil. Environmental groups seeking to reduce oil consumption have sought to artificially drive the price of oil even higher by increasing gas taxes. Alternative energy companies are an attractive investment when the price of oil is high.
For groups who seek to keep the price of oil high, there are several courses of action. First, they should work to keep demand high by discouraging conservation. Drivers should be encouraged to not to carpool or combine trips. Drivers should also be told not to slow down. Driving over 60 mph dramatically increases fuel consumption, especially in gas guzzling SUVs. The effective cost of gasoline increases by about twenty cents per gallon for each five miles per hour over 60 mph. For example, driving 70 mph means that you may as well pay an extra forty cents per gallon to fill up your tank. Not maintaining cars and keeping tires properly inflated also increases fuel consumption.
Keeping demand high is also accomplished by preventing the adoption of practical alternate sources of energy. Many sources of energy that are wildly popular hold little promise for a market the size of the United States.
Brazil has become almost totally energy independent through the use of ethanol-based fuels and many would like for the US to emulate their model. The problem is that Brazilian ethanol is sugar-based while only corn-based ethanol is widely available in the US. Corn ethanol is not as efficient as sugar ethanol. It actually takes more energy to produce and distribute corn ethanol than the ethanol itself provides. Additionally, it would take an area roughly the size of New England to provide enough ethanol to meet American needs. Finally, diverting corn to ethanol drives up food prices, which means that consumers would simply trade expensive gas for expensive food.
Solar and wind power are trendy sources alternate energy, but neither is ready to supplant oil as the primary engine of the world economy. Both require large capital investments in infrastructure and both are subject to changing weather. In the future, better means of storing large quantities of electricity and cheaper solar collectors and windmills may make solar and wind power more attractive, but presently they are not cost-effective or practical.
To keep gas prices high, consumers should also make certain that the supply of oil does not increase. The most effective way of doing this is by continuing to elect politicians who make it difficult to explore and drill for oil domestically in the United States. Current US policies prevent drilling in much of Alaska, the Gulf of Mexico, and federal lands in the continental US. These areas hold 635 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, enough to supply 60 million homes for 100 years, and 112 billion barrels of oil, enough to supply US needs for about 60 years.
Additionally, Congress and state governments are jointly responsible for high taxes on gasoline. Taxes on gasoline make up about 15% of the cost of a gallon, while oil company profits only account for about 4%. A reduction in gasoline taxes would provide relief at the gas pump for American drivers, and some presidential candidates are calling for a gas tax moratorium. Others are calling for increases in the gas tax, however, arguing that higher prices will decrease demand and spur conservation.
Government red tape also contributes to the high cost of gas. Environmental regulations make it a difficult and expensive proposition to build refineries to convert oil into gasoline. The last US refinery was built in the 1970s, although a few new refineries are under construction.
Environmental regulations also require that refineries manufacture expensive blends of gasoline in certain areas and in the summer to decrease pollution. Changing formulas is expensive and requires the refinery to stop production to make the changes. Making fewer types of gasoline would lower the cost and allow more gasoline to be produced.
Government regulations also slow the construction of nuclear power plants, the most practical form of alternate energy currently available. Advances in nuclear plant design allow nuclear power to be safe, clean and cheap. France currently supplies about 80% of its energy needs through nuclear power. Environmental groups and government regulations make it difficult to build nuclear plants in the US, however.
In short, there are two ways to lower the price of gasoline: by either increasing supply or decreasing demand. As long as people around the world continue to use large quantities of oil and limiting oil exploration and drilling, oil prices will continue to stay high.
Sunday, June 1, 2008
How NOT to Lower the Price of Gas
Record fuel prices have Americans, as well as drivers around the world, feeling gas pains at the pump. High oil prices also drive up the cost of many other items due to production and delivery costs. High gas prices are certain to be a major issue in this year’s elections.
Currently, the high price of oil reflects increasing demand around the world, particularly from developing countries such as India and China, as well as constraints on supply. Supply is limited by the high cost of exploration for new oil fields and bureaucratic limitations on opening new refineries.
While the high cost of gasoline is a problem for many, there are a few groups who benefit from high price of oil. Oil producing countries reap huge profits from expensive oil. Environmental groups seeking to reduce oil consumption have sought to artificially drive the price of oil even higher by increasing gas taxes. Alternative energy companies are an attractive investment when the price of oil is high.
For groups who seek to keep the price of oil high, there are several courses of action. First, they should work to keep demand high by discouraging conservation. Drivers should be encouraged to not to carpool or combine trips. Drivers should also be told not to slow down. Driving over 60 mph dramatically increases fuel consumption, especially in gas guzzling SUVs. The effective cost of gasoline increases by about twenty cents per gallon for each five miles per hour over 60 mph. For example, driving 70 mph means that you may as well pay an extra forty cents per gallon to fill up your tank. Not maintaining cars and keeping tires properly inflated also increases fuel consumption.
Keeping demand high is also accomplished by preventing the adoption of practical alternate sources of energy. Many sources of energy that are wildly popular hold little promise for a market the size of the United States.
Brazil has become almost totally energy independent through the use of ethanol-based fuels and many would like for the US to emulate their model. The problem is that Brazilian ethanol is sugar-based while only corn-based ethanol is widely available in the US. Corn ethanol is not as efficient as sugar ethanol. It actually takes more energy to produce and distribute corn ethanol than the ethanol itself provides. Additionally, it would take an area roughly the size of New England to provide enough ethanol to meet American needs. Finally, diverting corn to ethanol drives up food prices, which means that consumers would simply trade expensive gas for expensive food.
Solar and wind power are trendy sources alternate energy, but neither is ready to supplant oil as the primary engine of the world economy. Both require large capital investments in infrastructure and both are subject to changing weather. In the future, better means of storing large quantities of electricity and cheaper solar collectors and windmills may make solar and wind power more attractive, but presently they are not cost-effective or practical.
To keep gas prices high, consumers should also make certain that the supply of oil does not increase. The most effective way of doing this is by continuing to elect politicians who make it difficult to explore and drill for oil domestically in the United States. Current US policies prevent drilling in much of Alaska, the Gulf of Mexico, and federal lands in the continental US. These areas hold 635 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, enough to supply 60 million homes for 100 years, and 112 billion barrels of oil, enough to supply US needs for about 60 years.
Additionally, Congress and state governments are jointly responsible for high taxes on gasoline. Taxes on gasoline make up about 15% of the cost of a gallon, while oil company profits only account for about 4%. A reduction in gasoline taxes would provide relief at the gas pump for American drivers, and some presidential candidates are calling for a gas tax moratorium. Others are calling for increases in the gas tax, however, arguing that higher prices will decrease demand and spur conservation.
Government red tape also contributes to the high cost of gas. Environmental regulations make it a difficult and expensive proposition to build refineries to convert oil into gasoline. The last US refinery was built in the 1970s, although a few new refineries are under construction.
Environmental regulations also require that refineries manufacture expensive blends of gasoline in certain areas and in the summer to decrease pollution. Changing formulas is expensive and requires the refinery to stop production to make the changes. Making fewer types of gasoline would lower the cost and allow more gasoline to be produced.
Government regulations also slow the construction of nuclear power plants, the most practical form of alternate energy currently available. Advances in nuclear plant design allow nuclear power to be safe, clean and cheap. France currently supplies about 80% of its energy needs through nuclear power. Environmental groups and government regulations make it difficult to build nuclear plants in the US, however.
In short, there are two ways to lower the price of gasoline: by either increasing supply or decreasing demand. As long as people around the world continue to use large quantities of oil and limiting oil exploration and drilling, oil prices will continue to stay high.
Currently, the high price of oil reflects increasing demand around the world, particularly from developing countries such as India and China, as well as constraints on supply. Supply is limited by the high cost of exploration for new oil fields and bureaucratic limitations on opening new refineries.
While the high cost of gasoline is a problem for many, there are a few groups who benefit from high price of oil. Oil producing countries reap huge profits from expensive oil. Environmental groups seeking to reduce oil consumption have sought to artificially drive the price of oil even higher by increasing gas taxes. Alternative energy companies are an attractive investment when the price of oil is high.
For groups who seek to keep the price of oil high, there are several courses of action. First, they should work to keep demand high by discouraging conservation. Drivers should be encouraged to not to carpool or combine trips. Drivers should also be told not to slow down. Driving over 60 mph dramatically increases fuel consumption, especially in gas guzzling SUVs. The effective cost of gasoline increases by about twenty cents per gallon for each five miles per hour over 60 mph. For example, driving 70 mph means that you may as well pay an extra forty cents per gallon to fill up your tank. Not maintaining cars and keeping tires properly inflated also increases fuel consumption.
Keeping demand high is also accomplished by preventing the adoption of practical alternate sources of energy. Many sources of energy that are wildly popular hold little promise for a market the size of the United States.
Brazil has become almost totally energy independent through the use of ethanol-based fuels and many would like for the US to emulate their model. The problem is that Brazilian ethanol is sugar-based while only corn-based ethanol is widely available in the US. Corn ethanol is not as efficient as sugar ethanol. It actually takes more energy to produce and distribute corn ethanol than the ethanol itself provides. Additionally, it would take an area roughly the size of New England to provide enough ethanol to meet American needs. Finally, diverting corn to ethanol drives up food prices, which means that consumers would simply trade expensive gas for expensive food.
Solar and wind power are trendy sources alternate energy, but neither is ready to supplant oil as the primary engine of the world economy. Both require large capital investments in infrastructure and both are subject to changing weather. In the future, better means of storing large quantities of electricity and cheaper solar collectors and windmills may make solar and wind power more attractive, but presently they are not cost-effective or practical.
To keep gas prices high, consumers should also make certain that the supply of oil does not increase. The most effective way of doing this is by continuing to elect politicians who make it difficult to explore and drill for oil domestically in the United States. Current US policies prevent drilling in much of Alaska, the Gulf of Mexico, and federal lands in the continental US. These areas hold 635 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, enough to supply 60 million homes for 100 years, and 112 billion barrels of oil, enough to supply US needs for about 60 years.
Additionally, Congress and state governments are jointly responsible for high taxes on gasoline. Taxes on gasoline make up about 15% of the cost of a gallon, while oil company profits only account for about 4%. A reduction in gasoline taxes would provide relief at the gas pump for American drivers, and some presidential candidates are calling for a gas tax moratorium. Others are calling for increases in the gas tax, however, arguing that higher prices will decrease demand and spur conservation.
Government red tape also contributes to the high cost of gas. Environmental regulations make it a difficult and expensive proposition to build refineries to convert oil into gasoline. The last US refinery was built in the 1970s, although a few new refineries are under construction.
Environmental regulations also require that refineries manufacture expensive blends of gasoline in certain areas and in the summer to decrease pollution. Changing formulas is expensive and requires the refinery to stop production to make the changes. Making fewer types of gasoline would lower the cost and allow more gasoline to be produced.
Government regulations also slow the construction of nuclear power plants, the most practical form of alternate energy currently available. Advances in nuclear plant design allow nuclear power to be safe, clean and cheap. France currently supplies about 80% of its energy needs through nuclear power. Environmental groups and government regulations make it difficult to build nuclear plants in the US, however.
In short, there are two ways to lower the price of gasoline: by either increasing supply or decreasing demand. As long as people around the world continue to use large quantities of oil and limiting oil exploration and drilling, oil prices will continue to stay high.
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