By Katy Grimes

I just returned from a trip to the Middle East, and managed to pack several thousand years of history into three weeks. Against the warnings and concerns of many friends, my husband and I, and another couple, traveled to Istanbul, Turkey, then to Israel, where we rented a car and drove around the country.

I felt safer in Israel and Istanbul than I do in Los Angeles or San Francisco.

The people

No tour groups, no tour buses and no tourist restaurants for us. We thoroughly researched the countries ahead of the trip, and decided to immerse ourselves as much as we could in a short time. We ate at local restaurants, visited local bars, and hung out in local coffee houses, while sightseeing, meeting local people, and learning about the countries.

I think the most compelling part of any trip is always the people. The Turkish people were kind, welcoming and engaging. They openly shared much about the state of their country, their economy, their politics, culture, how they live, as well as their history. And many were chagrined that we were heading to Israel next.

The Turkish people are workers, industrious, fit, healthy and trim. There do not appear to be excesses in their lives. The young work, and the country’s older people still work.

Israelis were also friendly, but in a different way. They are much more serious given the threat they live with. Israelis also work hard. The welfare system in Israel is different from America’s because it is primarily for the tens of thousands of ultra-orthodox Jewish men who spend their days studying the Torah instead of working. But there is growing disdain and disenchantment among the working people of Israel because the highly subsidized ultra-orthodox Jewish class is growing, and draining precious resources.

Israeli’s openly expressed frustration with leaders who seem so willing to continue to give away Israeli land. They say that giving away Israeli land will not bring about peace.

It is evident in both Turkey and Israel that politicians have not imposed business-killing regulations. Someone with the imagination, work ethic and drive can still open a business without bureaucrats standing in their way.

We never saw “homeless” people as we see in America. There were a few beggars in Israel, but I never saw any in Istanbul.

However, there were plenty of clever shop owners, and operators of tiny bodegas, who make money very creatively when hawking their wares along the streets and alleys of the cities. These people work all hours of the day and night, without union rules and regulations. They know that work means income.

Real conservation

In Turkey and Israel, I observed sincere, effective energy conservation. Hotels have energy saving devices in the guest rooms which require the room card to be inserted in order for the electricity  to work. When the guest leaves and removes the card, all of the electricity shuts off. Businesses use this system as well.

The people of Istanbul and Israel drive small cars, scooters and motorbikes. I saw one Escalade SUV during my trip. The diesel Jeep Cherokee is a popular SUV option, and one not available yet in the United States, although it is expected soon.

The primary car manufacturers I saw were smaller models of Hyundai, Toyota, Skoda, Audi, Opel, Ford, Chevy, Pugeot and Kia.

Istanbul

History in this part of the world has been violent, dangerous and fatal for many civilizations.

In Istanbul, we saw evidence of the earliest cave dwellers during the Stone Age, Copper Age and Bronze Age. We saw artifacts and ruins from 676 BC, when Greek settlers arrived on the coast of Turkey; through Alexander the Great, Roman and Byzantine Emperors Septimius, Constantine, Theodosius, Justinian, Romanus Diogenes; and the fall of the Roman Empire. Then the Crusaders tore most of Istanbul down, but left their cross marks on buildings all over the city. The Ottoman Empire was ushered in, with Mehmet the Conqueror and Topkapi Palace. The building of the Blue Mosque and many of the 169 mosques in Istanbul took place from 1300 through 1567, when the “New Mosque” was completed.

The call-to-prayer at the mosques five times daily was interesting. Beginning at daybreak, the first call-to-prayer usually woke us up. We discovered that only about 12 percent of Muslims in Istanbul are observant.

We took a boat down the Bosphorus Strait to the Sea of Marmara. The Bosphorus was an important trade route in ancient Turkey, and many settlements along the river were established because of it.

Israel

Israel provided as much history. Located between Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, along the Mediterranean Sea, we arrived at Israel’s primary airport, Ben Gurion in Tel Aviv. We rented a car and drove along the western coast from Tel Aviv to Caesarea, Netayna, up North through Haifa to Safed, near the Lebanon border, to the Sea of Galilee, the Golan Heights, and Tiberias, back down through the Jezreel Valley and the West Bank, to Jerusalem, where we stayed five days. Then we drove east toward Jordan to the Dead Sea and Masada, the first site Herod the Great fortified after he gained control of his kingdom in 35 BC. Then it was back to modern Tel Aviv.

Tel Aviv was an amazing contrast to Safed and Jerusalem, where mostly observant Jews and Christians lived. Tel Aviv is a much more secular and modern city, built only 100 years ago. While much of the oldest buildings are crumbling, the new construction was astounding. I counted 20 cranes working on different high-rise construction projects in the downtown area.

In Israel, we saw evidence of cave dwellers from 12,000 BC. In 3200 BC, Canaanite tribes established well-fortified cities, and by 1000 BC Jerusalem became the capital of the tribes.  King Solomon built the first Temple in 960 BC. But by 586 BC, Babylonians destroyed it. Future Temples were desecrated and destroyed, but many were rebuilt.

By 63 BC, the Romans invaded and captured Jerusalem, but also rebuilt much of the Holy City, including the new Temple, of which only the Western Wall remains today.

We walked along the footsteps of the Via Dolorosa. We walked the Stations of the Cross, the steps of the Crucifixion of Jesus in Jerusalem. East stop commemorates the events during the torture, sentencing, carrying of the cross, crucifixion, death and burial of Jesus. The final stations of the crucifixion and burial are within the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. We spent several hours in the Church built where Jesus was crucified, prepared for burial, entombed, and resurrected.

At the Shrine of the Book, we saw the Dead Sea Scrolls, the 972 texts first discovered in 1946 on the shore of the Dead Sea that consist of manuscripts from what is now known as the Hebrew Bible and other biblical documents.

Inside the Old City, we spent days visiting the Western Wall, the Arab quarter, the Jewish Quarter, the Armenian Quarter and the Tower of David.

The elements of Ottoman, Crusader and Byzantine architecture are all still evident, and amazing to see and touch.

I will remember the people. They know the history of their countries, and are painfully aware of current threats — unlike Americans, who seem defiantly determined to repeat the mistakes and ugliest parts of history.

By Chriss Street

This is a crucial development for California, which recently slipped to fourth among the 50 states in oil production. Texas remains first, followed by North Dakota and its lucrative new Bakken formation, then Alaska in third place.

The United States is on track to achieve independence from imported Middle East oil within the next seven years due to the boom in domestic and North American energy development.  Consequently, the United States would have eventually ratcheted down our huge military presence in the Middle East defending oil imports.

But just like television scenes of the attack on the United States embassy during the 1968 TET Offensive destroyed public support for the Vietnam War, last week’s television images of protests against American embassies has devastated public support for a continuing military presence in the Middle East.  The American public will soon demand a crash program to exploit domestic energy resources to facilitate a Middle East withdrawal.

American Exceptionalism’s military and economic triumphs in the first half of the 20th Century were directly attributable to secure domestic access to immense amounts of oil. President Coolidge wrote in 1924 after WW I, “the supremacy of nations may be determined by the possession of available petroleum and its products.”

World War II

During World War II, the United States’ domestic gasoline output for the military grew 18 times and the production of aviation fuel jumped by 80 times.  Half the total weight of supplies shipped overseas to U.S. allies during the war consisted of petroleum products.

Following defeat of Germany’s Afrika Korps in 1943, Middle East oil resources were rapidly commercialized.  After the war, massive new volumes of cheap Middle East oil froze the world price of oil at between $2.77 and $3.60 a barrel from 1948 to 1972.  During that period, American domestic production withered and the bulk of U.S. oil refining capacity was relocated to coastal ports on the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

On December 2, 1970, just as oil prices were about to climb, Congress created the Environmental Protection Agency, which had a huge negative financial impact on the domestic oil industry.  The number operating oil refineries in the U.S. fell from 301 in 1970 to 134 today.  Land-based oil production fell from 9.6 million barrels a day in 1970 to only 5.1 million in 2005.

Even with new off-shore production in Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico, total U.S. domestic oil production fell from 10.8 million barrels a day in 1980 to 8.3 million barrels in 2005.  To cover the shortfall as demand continued to grow, imports rose from 1.3 million barrels a day in 1970, providing 12 percent of supply, to a peak of more than 12 million barrels in 2005, accounting for 63 percent of all U.S. oil supply. 

Fracking

But since 2008, fracking and other new drilling technologies have fostered a domestic 25 percwent surge in oil production and a 40 percent jump in natural gas production.  Demand for imported oil has fallen to less than 45 percent of supply, the lowest level since 1997.  Cheap new supplies from Canadian tar sands drove down imports of Middle East oil to less than 10 percent of U.S. supply.

Radical Islam’s coordinated attacks against American embassies across the Middle East have fractured the region’s respect for U.S. military power and emboldened our enemies.  Taliban forces this weekend brazenly penetrated the perimeter of a the joint U.S. and British air base in Afghanistan, blew up 6 Marine Harrier “jump jets” and killed one of the Marines’ highest decorated Air Squadron leaders.  After NATO forces suffered their 51st murder by Afghan government forces, the U.S. military suspended all operations patrolling with Afghan troops.

In 1968, President Lyndon Johnson claimed a military victory as American and South Vietnam forces slaughtered 10 times as many Viet Cong as Americans were lost in the TET Offensive.  But bloody television images of the battle at the U.S. embassy in Saigon convinced Americans that the Vietnamese could never be pacified.  Similar television images of anti-American violence in the Middle East has convinced the American public that the Middle East cannot be pacified.

The American public will soon politically coalesce around a major increase in domestic energy exploration and development in order to facilitate the elimination of reliance on imported Middle East oil.  Fortunately, America has the technology and resource potential to rapidly make this initiative a reality.

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This column by Chriss Street is not about California per se, but it’s an interesting read about federal monetary policy — something that always affects our state.

BY CHRISS STREET

The U.S. Federal Reserve Board’s second round of Quantitative Easing stimulus, QE II, has caused vicious un-intended consequences around the world. The 42 percent rise in the CRB index of food prices has already caused starvation for millions of people, burned down the Middle East, and is increasingly creating havoc in Asia.

But QE 2’s most venomous consequence may be its squandering of the U.S. Federal Budget’s expected “peace dividend,” as America is now re-ensnared in the Middle East sectarian turmoil.

The goal of the Fed’s QE II stimulus was to create enough inflation to force reluctant consumers to open their wallets and start spending. The program’s result has been vicious food and commodity inflation causing consumers to be more reluctant or unable to spend on anything but basic essentials.

The Middle East has the highest percentage of income spent on food, with Morocco at 63 percent, Algeria at 53 percent, Egypt at 48 percent and Libya at 38 percent. So it should not be surprising that the region would be the first to burn down from protests.

Iran’s Shiite leadership has clearly stoked the fires of popular dissent that has caused the uprisings in North Africa. The recent spread of this havoc to the Arabian Peninsula now represents a once-in-a-generation opportunity for Iran to try to regain dominance in the entire Persian Gulf.

For the last decade, the Iranians have used covert paramilitary capabilities to undermine America’s military missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. Iran has seen their efforts as a low cost and high reward opportunity to bleed America’s public support for the Gulf commitments.

Obama’s Surge in Afghanistan

Barak Obama ran for President as a centrist candidate with a strident pledge to military intervention in Afghanistan. As Obama campaigned in 2008, the Bush Administration was achieving a modest victory in Iraq and a stalemate in Afghanistan. Most analysts assumed that if Barak Obama became President, he would quickly cut back spending and draw-down American ground forces in the Middle East.

But once in office, President Obama almost tripled the U.S. troop strength and spending in Afghanistan and pursued an aggressive war. With current spending on Iraq and Afghanistan running at approximately the same $250 billion annually as in the Bush Administration, there is still an expectation that by the 2012 election campaign the United States will begin to realize a “peace dividend,” from an American troop withdrawal, of about $150 billion per year.

Saudi Arabia has watched in horror over the last two months as their allies in Morocco, Algeria, Egypt and Libya have been devastated by popular unrest. After its neighbor Bahrain, with its 60% majority of Shiite Muslims, was rocked by protests, Saudi Arabia decided to send in its military to “rescue” their embattled Sunni Muslim Al Khalifa family, who ruled Bahrain since 1783.

The “rescue” of Bahrain and the liberation of Kuwait in 1991 are the only two direct military actions by Saudi Arabia since World War I. The Iranians had probably hoped to destabilize Bahrain without triggering an invasion by Saudi Arabia. But the introduction of an occupying military force into a fellow Shiite majority country creates a probable third front for Iran to challenge and bleed the United States and her allies.

The Obama Administration now finds itself in the midst of a boiling Middle East cauldron with massive political and military risks. Bahrain is the home port to the U.S. 5th Fleet, which provides America with control of the Persian Gulf and protection for the world’s largest sources of crude oil and natural gas.

Even though the latest Washington Post/ABC News poll released today finds that 64 percent of Americans think the Afghanistan war “hasn’t been worth it,” President Obama will probably soon be forced to announce a halt to or even reverse of the withdrawal of U.S. combat forces from Iraq and Afghanistan as Iran becomes more emboldened by America’s new political and military weaknesses.

The American government has racked up a sorry record in its misguided attempts to stimulate the economy, which seems to have only resulted in a doubling of our national debt and even higher unemployment. With a new Congress determined to cut deficit spending, the Administration obviously pressured the Fed to do something bold to help the economy.

So far, the Fed’s QE II bold stimulus has spewed inflation and harmed many nations. With the Middle East heating up and the “peace dividend” about to evaporate, QE II may soon inflict tremendous political and financial damage to the United States.

MARCH 16