France-Europe [Lettre OUI à l'EUROPE, par Francis Fontaine]

Lettre  OUI à l'EUROPE  N° 1301 du 4 janvier 2009

Sélection du Net

Le Blog de Jean Qutremer : Prague veut adopter l’euro
Pour fêter le début de sa présidence de l’Union européenne, Mirek Topolanek a annoncé, jeudi, le jour même où la Slovaquie voisine rejoignait la zone euro, qu’il déciderait en novembre de la date à laquelle son pays adhèrerait à la monnaie unique: « j’ai demandé au ministre des Finances de préparer un plan de convergence d’ici à octobre », a dit le premier ministre. Jusque-là, l’ODS, le parti libéral au pouvoir depuis 2007, avait refusé d’envisager une quelconque date en invoquant un contexte général défavorable, la réalité étant son euroscepticisme convaincu.
Rappelons que pour ne pas adhérer à l’euro, il faut bénéficier d’un opt out explicitement prévu par les traités : en l’occurrence, la Grande-Bretagne et le Danemark sont seuls dans ce cas. […]
Cela étant, si même les eurosceptiques tchèques, pourtant parmi les plus virulents de l’Union européenne, trouvent des vertus à la monnaie unique, cela devrait interpeller ceux qui, même s’ils se font plus rares, continuent à la critiquer… Il doit bien y avoir une raison à cette ruée vers l’euro, non ?

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Aljazeera : 'War amongst the people' - By Paul Beaver
Israel is a highly developed technological society. Its defence equipment industry supplies the major industrial and new industrial nations with niche technology that is second-to-none. In the last 60 years, Israel has fought several full-scale industrial age wars against its neighbours and been involved in a number of counter-insurgency conflicts typical of the many fought by the Western powers during the 19th and 20th centuries. It has never lost a conflict. But this is the age of 'war amongst the people' and just now the jury is out. […]
The changing mode of conflict in this sub-region became clear in August 2006.Believing that the lessons which Nato learned during the Kosovo conflict were that air power alone could win a war without the use of ground troops - negating all the risks physical, political and economic attached to sending in the tanks - appealed to the Israeli army and its political masters.
For example, precision weapons, world class though they may be, could not destroy the small, remotely-controlled rocket launchers before munitions had been launched - only after the damage had been done. Certainly, the main heavy and medium rocket launchers were put out of action before Hezbollah could bring them into operation.However, it was the small systems, often home-made, nestling on the balconies of apartment blocks, in orchards, partially protected by top cover and above all devoid of people who might show up on the infra-red scanning technology carried by Israeli drones - unmanned aerial vehicles like Heron and Skylite - that caused the greatest damage. Hezbollah also dug in Vietcong-style with tunnels and underground facilities, developed over many years.
Damage to Israel's reputation in the eyes of the domestic audience and that of the media was unusually high. And because Hezbollah is so much better at using the media than Israel, many firmly believe Israel lost the conflict. It did not but facts rarely have a place in a 'war amongst the people'.

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