Israeli, Palestinian Ministers Trade Blame For Stalled Peace Process

December 1, 2010 · Posted in Forex Exchange · Comments Off 
The Media Line Staff

Jerusalem, Israel David Rosenberg – Israel Industry, Trade and Labor Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer and his Palestinian counterpart, Economic Minister Dr. Hassan Abu-Libdeh, sought to tackle a host of economic issues in a private meeting in Jerusalem on Wednesday, but the two agreed that economic cooperation couldn’t substitute for a peace agreement.

Speaking at a briefing organized by The Media Line’s Mideast Press Club, the two ministers traded blame for stalled negotiations. Ben-Eliezer urged Palestinians to drop their demands for a settlement freeze and resume talks immediately, saying Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu was sincerely interested in reaching a pact. Abu Libdeh cast doubt on the Israeli prime minister’s intentions.

“Mr. Netanyahu isn’t a man of peace. He was elected by right-wing Israelis. He wants everything, including a quasi-Palestinian state with no content at all,” Abu Libdeh told reporters at the briefing. “Sixty percent of the West Bank is reserved for settlements and other security activities.”

Ben-Eliezer, who belongs to the Labor Party, the most dovish of the parties in Netanyahu’s coalition government, defended the prime minister’s intentions. He warned that Israel and the Arab world had to resolve the Palestinian issue in order to face up to the threat to region posed by Iran.

“If I were [Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas], I would call Netanyahu tomorrow morning to come to Ramallah and address all the critical issues for the sake of all of our children,” Ben Eliezer said. “The question of a settlement freeze right now is marginal.”

The two sides resumed talks briefly in September under U.S. auspices, but the negotiations broke off after a temporary Israeli freeze on building in areas acquired in the 1967 war expired. Palestinians have conditioned further talks on a renewed freeze, but U.S. President Barack Obama has so far failed to find terms satisfactory to Israel.

But even as the two sides have so far failed to find a formula for reviving peace talks, the economies of Israel and the Palestinian areas have enjoyed strong growth. The International Monetary Fund forecasts Palestinian gross domestic product will expand 8 percent this year, boosted by large infusions of foreign assistance, while it expects Israeli GDP will grow 4 percent, led by exports.

Nevertheless, Palestinian economic prospects have been stymied by Israeli restrictions on the movement of goods and people. The two ministers met Wednesday to try and resolve some of these issues, including allowing Palestinian products to enter Israel more freely and removing obstacles to development of the Jenin industrial zone in the West Bank.

Ben-Eliezer said Israel would back the Palestinian Authority’s bid to get observer status at the World Trade Organization, the main global body dealing with the rules of trade between nations. The two, who last met in August, agreed to discuss economic and commercial matters on a regular basis.

Israel has imposed a blockade on the Gaza Strip since the Muslim fundamentalists group Hamas seized control of the enclave. Since June, Israel has eased some of its restrictions, allowing more goods to arrive and this week allowed the first fresh produce to leave Gaza for markets in Europe in a program that will allow Gaza farmers to export 700 tons of strawberries and 30 million carnations this season.

In the West Bank — where the Palestinian Authority with whom Israel is holding peace talks governs – Israel maintains hundreds of security checkpoints along the area’s roads, slowing the movement of people and goods.

But Ben-Eliezer told the briefing, which was attended by dozens of Israeli, Palestinian and foreign journalists, Israel had reduced its security presence in the West Bank. He said there were only 14 permanent roadblocks and that the number of other security measures, such as flying checkpoints, Israel imposes had fallen to about 300.

“What was two or three years ago and what is now, you can’t compare,” he said, noting that most of the work in suppressing terrorism is now being handled by PA security forces.

Felice Friedson, president and chief executive officer of The Media Line, told the briefing that Israelis and Palestinians must decide whether co-existence means economic cooperation or a parallel but separate economic life.

“There are glimpses of cooperation,” she said. “This week for instance, the story broke of Israel green-lighting the export of Gaza strawberries to the world markets. On the other hand, Bashar Al-Masri, the developer of Rawabi, the first Palestinian planned city, told me that he is still awaiting approval from Israel defense minister for the city’s access road.”

Abu-Libdeh defended a PA campaign to boycott Israeli communities in the West Bank. Palestinians violating the ban, including buying products made in the settlements and working in construction jobs, face up to five years in jail and fines of up to $14,000.

“We believe what we are doing is the right thing and we will continue to do the right thing,” he said about the boycott, in which he has taken a leading role. “We very much want to cooperate with Israel in terms of the economy and other spheres, but first we have to create the proper conditions for the two peoples to make pace.”

An estimated 22,000 Palestinians work in the settlements in factories, farms and in construction. Ben-Eliezer said he was “not pleased” with the boycott campaign, saying economic issues should be kept apart from politics, but didn’t say what steps Israel might take to counter it.

Commercial ties between the two sides have remained limited as Palestinian unrest during two intifadas caused Israel to prevent Palestinians from working in Israel and blocked trade to prevent terror attacks.

Even though Palestinians constitute a market of 4 million people right next door, Israeli companies sell very little to the West Bank and Gaza, according to a Bank of Israel study released last month.

Tax figures show Israeli businesses sold $3.2 billion worth of goods to the Palestinians in 2008, which would make the West Bank and Gaza a bigger market for Israel than any single European country. In fact, about 60 percent of that $3.2 billion is imported goods trucked into Palestinian areas by Israeli companies, the Central Bank said. The Palestinian market accounts for just 0.15 percent of Israeli GDP and for 3,000 jobs, it estimated.

The West Bank and Gaza had exports of $500 million to Israel in 2008, the last year figures are available from the Palestine Central Bureau of Statistics.

The Mideast Press Club seeks to advance professional and personal relationships between Israeli and Palestinian journalists through programs, master classes and incentives for the study of journalism and the enhancement of coverage of the Middle East.

Heading into its sixth year, the Mideast Press Club is an initiative of The Media Line, a non-profit American news agency specializing in coverage of the Middle East and journalistic education

Article © AHN – All Rights Reserved

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Catlin outlines approval process for new store

November 18, 2010 · Posted in Forex · Comments Off 

CATLIN – Village officials outlined the process for the approval of a new retail store near Catlin on Tuesday.

Dollar General is considering building a new store on a one-acre tract just northeast of the Catlin village limits along the Catlin-Tilton Road.

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Forex Currency Trading – How to Harness Today’s Trading Technology

January 31, 2010 · Posted in Currencies · Comments Off 

Self control and discipline can be nurtured and strengthened over time and are extremely valuable qualities to develop. In this article we’ll talk about how these qualities relate to current and projected future developments in the Forex industry.

Manual Forex trading is a time-tested and market proven method for trading Forex. There is no doubt that manual Forex trading is here to stay. Many of the most skilled full-time Forex traders prefer this method. The key words here are skilled full-time traders.

You see, manual Forex trading can be time consuming. While the process of Forex technical analysis gets a bit easier and more efficient with practice in manual Forex trading it can never be completely eliminated. Manual Forex traders will always need to complete their technical and perhaps even fundamental analysis prior to executing their Forex trades.

As you know, fundamental Forex analysis has to do with looking at economic indicators within and between nations. Fundamental Forex indicators such as Consumer Price Index, Non-Farm Payroll, Gross National Product, Industrial Production, Producer Price Index, Retail Sales, Balance of Payments and Interest Rates are many of the most common fundamental Forex indicators traders seek to incorporate in their analysis.

Needless to say using both fundamental and technical analysis is quite complex and can be a very time consuming challenge. Except for “news” traders many Forex traders default to primarily using Forex technical analysis.

A prime example of “news” is the Non Farm Payroll announcement. This announcement normally takes place on the first Friday of each month at 8:30am Eastern Time. Forex traders who trade the news position themselves in the market to capture as many PIP’s as possible during the market corrections that take place just after a “news” release. Forex traders who trade the news rely quite a bit on fundamental indicators in making their trade decisions.

New Forex software programs that gather and interpret Forex fundamental indicators have been around for a while and they will continue to improve their accuracy with time.

Speaking of Forex software programs, one of the most rapidly developing forms of Forex software are “Expert Advisors”. Forex Expert Advisors (EA’s for short) are software programs that operate within your Forex trading platform. So far, the industry leading Forex trading platform for EA’s is the Metatrader 4 Trading Platform designed by ODL Securities.

There are several advantages to using an EA. Perhaps chief among these advantages is the fact that the “on-board” programming of the EA eliminates the need for the Forex trader to spend a lot of time doing technical analysis. Once an EA is properly initiated, it will automatically trade a specified Forex pair, or pairs, using a predetermined strategy or Forex trading approach.

This can be a huge time-saver.

With an EA the Forex technical analysis is handled by the Forex trading logic programmed into the EA. The EA functions off of a set of predetermined “rules” which guide its operation. The EA enters the Forex trade when the entry conditions are met and exits the Forex trade when the exit conditions are met. Each EA has a different set of predetermined rules. Each rule is typically controlled by one or more user adjustable “switches”. These switches are optimized at the time the EA is delivered to the user and can be saved as a switch settings profile. Once the default switch settings are saved, the user can make changes to the switch settings if they wish. It is important to remember that the best way to determine EA switch settings is through the back testing process.

Back testing is a process by which each switch or set of switches are methodically tested using actual past market data from your Forex trading platform. While back testing takes much less time than forward testing it is still a painstaking and time consuming process but the results can be very revealing and informative. This process will tell you such things as, for example, which time frame(s) and currency pair(s) are the most profitable to trade.

Back testing is absolutely necessary in order to optimize the settings for an EA and as such it is very valuable process but the process is not perfect. Data mismatches can occur during the back test process which can degrade the results somewhat. The source of these data mismatches is not known at this time but it is an industry wide problem and the solution to the mismatch problem is being vigorously pursued.

Even with its flaws the back test process remains of utmost importance when it comes to optimizing the performance of any EA.

The time saving nature of using an EA coupled with the stress reducing effect that it has on the Forex trader has boosted the popularity of this kind of Forex trade automation.

It is just this kind of Forex trade automation that is helping to fuel the explosive growth of the retail Forex market. It is no longer necessary to stay glued to your computer monitor and “baby sit” your Forex trades. Not only that but a properly designed EA can perform functions that even the most skilled and experienced Forex traders find difficult. For example, there are EA’s on the market today that can trade multiple currency pairs simultaneously. Other EA’s can trade multiple Forex hedge trades at the same time!

We are in the midst of a quiet revolution toward increased Forex trade automation. It is safe to say that the trend toward Forex trade atomization is likely to continue and strengthen over the next several years. Because the advantages of using an EA outweigh the disadvantages, the popularity of using EA’s is at an all time high and likely to set new records in the near future.

Even though EA’s are reducing the need for Forex technical analysis they are not reducing the importance of self-control and discipline. It is common for Forex traders who are new to EA trading to have an urge to “manual” trade using the EA. This is a mistake, first of all it defeats the purpose of the EA and second it can result in preventable loses.

With EA trading the EA is your Forex trading method. The EA trader is well advised to allow the EA to do its work without trying to manually over-ride it (Plan your trade – trade your plan).

If possible, examine the back testing and forward testing results of an EA before you purchase it. Always demo trade with a new EA to confirm its operation before using it in a live account.

EA trading is gaining in popularity by leaps and bounds. EA trading is part of a major trend toward increased automation in the world of Forex. This trend is expected to expand and strengthen in the years ahead.

Being skilled in Forex technical analysis is always an asset but EA trading relies more on the Forex trading logic of the EA than it does the technical skill of the trader.

Self control and discipline are equally important whether you are Forex manual trading or EA
trading. Combine the personal qualities self control and discipline with using a well designed EA and you are on your way to profiting in Forex – the world’s largest market.

Disclaimer – This article is for educational purposes only. It is not offered as investment or legal advice. The reader assumes all responsibility for any and all profits or losses incurred by his or her trading activities.

Author: David R Jaymes
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Programmable Multi-cooker

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