A few hours ago, a Palestinian attacker drove a 10-ton Caterpillar front-end loader into a crowded Jerusalem street, upending one bus and smashing into another, crushing cars and slamming into passers-by. By the time a soldier on leave climbed aboard and shot the driver, the attacker had succeeded in killing at least 3 Israelis and injuring at least 40.
It’s still too early to know a lot of details, but according to police officials, the attacker was a resident of East Jerusalem, from the village of Tzur Bacher. One reporter says he is a relative of the attacker at the Merkaz Harav school from a couple of months back.
Although Israel has done a great deal to thwart attacks from Palestinian organizations operating in the West Bank and Gaza, the problem of East Jerusalem is in some sense tougher — and tougher still if it turns out that he, like the attacker at Merkaz Harav, was working alone. Most East Jerusalem Palestinians have Israeli citizenship, carrying the same blue ID that non-Palestinian Israelis do, and have no restrictions on their travel throughout Israel. Most East Jerusalem Palestinians are just regular people with no interest in, or connection to, terror. And to build a wall through Jerusalem, the way Israel has done between its territory and the West Bank, will be tantamount to re-dividing the city — a prospect that few Israelis today are interested in.
In the coming weeks, we’ll be hearing a lot of rhetoric from some politicians about what to do about terror by Israeli Arabs, especially those in East Jerusalem. Putting restrictions on Israeli Arabs’ travel, as Shas leader Eli Yishai has called for today, sounds like the wrong direction for a country that takes pride in its democratic way of life. But this doesn’t make the problem go away. We should expect to hear from Mr. Olmert in the coming hours.
He was Jewish? So what.
you bring up an interesting issue I haven’t see elsewhere: why are charities investing money at all? HOw about invest money first , THEN give it to a charity?
Also, I’m not 100% sure on the timeline of madoffs transition from investor to scam artist but I was under the impression it was quite early. I think going back as far as 1960 he had not actually traded a single share. good article thought
One major fact about Madoff that should be emphasized is that his investors (not necessarily the funds) were rich individuals who ignored a number of warnings about his practices. They were lured by 40% returns that could not be explained. WC Fields may be the origin of the statement, “You can’t cheat an honest man.” If anything, his Jewishness drew other Jews who should have known better. Two doctor friends of mine used to refer to themselves as Jewish mutants because their investments turned out so badly.
Maybe the Madoff investors fit that definition, too.
Somone Please verify:
(1)That Madoff was once the president of Nasdaq
(2)That Madoff was on the Rules dept for the SEC,and wrote the “Madoff rule” which allowed large volume “naked” short selling,which allowed traders to “attack’ a companie’s stock by volume selling off WITOUT HAVING TO OWN ANY OF THAT STOCK.
Where is Jonny Hartland to offer one of his razor sharp witticisms? As I recall, he was moaning about the lack of a post on this topic.
There are three significant factual errors in this story:
1) Madoff began the Ponzi in the early 1960s, not in 1989 as the article says.
2) Hadassah was a Madoff winner because it withdrew $130 million after investing only $40 million.
3) Ezra Merkin did not give “Madoff access to the board of Yeshiva University.” Madoff was on the Board of Yeshiva. Merkin stood between Yeshiva and Madoff for a 1-1/2% annual fee without disclosing to Yeshiva (or any of his other investors) that he was merely handing money over to Madoff. Merkin not only deceived his regular investors, he also skimmed a university that honored him with a Board seat.
this money was DIVERTED from the economy. pooled outside it. He may have understood markets but he didn’t appear to have particpated in them
RCAR- I do not believe either of those are correct. naked shorting is illegal
The article wasn’t as bad as it could have been, but it was pale. It didn’t address any of the real issues. How did Madoff get his hooks into the SEC, which knew about his fraud yet allowed it to continue? What’s the complete cast of characters? What about the Madoff family and its background? Are they gangsters from a long time back?
Why the continuing secrecy about where the money went and where it now resides? You don’t spend $50 billion. All you do is transfer it. In the immortal words of Dan Hicls and His Hot Licks: “Where’s the money? Where’s the dough?”
The Madoff fraud is three times as large as those Wall Street bonuses that President Obama justifiably condemned. This is a financial fraud of gargantuan proportions. All but only a few countries would be bankrupted by something of this size, yet since December there has been precious little reporting of the details in the free ‘n independent American media.
Hmm. I (don’t) wonder why.
lester I see the computer lessons are starting to pay off. Now it is just a matter of hand eye coordination. When you push the shift key down it is generally for just one stroke. And if you push the shift key down and let it back up again when intending to type in CAPS you must type the letter you want to be capitalized before you release the shift key. Also, if you make a mistake, there is the backspace key, the one with the arrow pointing to your favorite direction, left which you can hit that will actually erase the mistaken. Be careful not to hold the backspace key down too long, or you may erase your whole thought and goodness knows you don’t want to do that.
John, did I ever tell you that Daddy took the opportunity to invest with Mr. Madoff. He set up trust funds for both of us, because he liked you a lot, saying I respect a man who can unabashedly espouse ignorance in the face of reason and not know the difference. I had him pull mine out a couple of years ago so I could invest in the Starbucks Franchise, you know, the ones where you go with your laptop when you need to temporarily exit your man cave. In any event, unfortunately, yours went down the Madoff sinkhole. You were doing quite well actually. I can understand why you would be bitter, but somehow I doubt that Madoff read Commentary.
Why the continuing secrecy about where the money went and where it now resides? You don’t spend $50 billion. All you do is transfer it. In the immortal words of Dan Hicls and His Hot Licks: “Where’s the money? Where’s the dough?”
Mr Hartland, has anyone ever explained Ponzi schemes to you ? If so, you should know where the 50 billion went.
If someone draws out money from a Ponzi scheme because of due diligence concerns, they must report those concerns or they become a co-conspirator.
8: “…it was pale”: Like Hartscheiss itself, or The One’s typical grandmother? Why does Contentions countenance this kind of blatant racism?
Alex, I said it was pale, not beyond the pale.
As a lot of Democrats (unfortunately looks like Obama tries to recruit a lot of them, so he will not feel lonely), Madoff was a thief, but every cloud has a silver lining.
http://religionandmorality.wordpress.com/2009/01/05/liberal-groups-lose-millions-in-madoff-ponzi-scheme-fallout/
And Madoff will not be able to support campaigns of leading Democrats any more.
The Madoff affair and other illegal and even legal financial chicanery brings up a philosophical question. What is money really all about? Has someone who loses millions but still possesses millions endured any kind of actual hardship? They lost money, it happens all the time. Get over it. As for the criminal, the money thief, what kind of a psycho is he? In Madoff’s case he had to be aware that the end would come sooner or later. Is it worthwhile to “enjoy” the riches for a period of time and then suffer the consequences? The same feeling must affect drug addicts and alcoholics. Madoff is their counterpart, with money as the intoxicant, evidently. There appears to be a segment of human society that is willing to risk virtually everything in the acquisition of money. Money in amounts that they certainly don’t require to survive or even prosper. This goes beyond capitalism or crime or even greed itself, which certainly doesn’t have to be pathological. The Madoffs of the world aren’t extensions of shoplifters or even con men. They’re sick.
#14 can suck his thumb and worry about the psychology. I want to know: “Where’s the money?”
“I want to know ‘Where’s the money?’”
http://www.sec.gov/answers/ponzi.htm
Read the above link. Then re-read #10.
Madoff is often identified as a Jew by the media, but how often is he identified as a Democrat?
Was Kofi Annan identified as a Black African when he took part in the oil for food scheme? Was Saddam Hussein identified as an Arab muslim for his part in the same scheme? Is Nancy Pelosi identified as an Italian for her part in the graft stimulus bill? Is Harry Reid identified as Gollum for his part in the same bill? Both of those scams are far larger in scale and far more destructive than Madoff’s ponzi scheme.
Jews are definitely held to a different standard than all other groups.
#17,
Right on.
9. man you are a regular jay leno with the jokes, seriously. You should go work for that cancelled FOX daily show rip off. great stuff and not a waste of space hardly at all
I must be missing the overarching significance of one individual’s criminality, as appalling as the crime certainly was. As to any deeper conspiratorial meaning, the only one I found is that there are suckers born every minute. And keeping up with current events it is hardly as if Madoff magically escaped scrutiny while every other investor was being subject to the inquisitorial rack.
Madoff’s only incentive to do his scheme was his ability to skim money from it on a regular basis. Until there is an accurate accounting of money going in and out of this operation, the amount skimmed during its “growth”, “steady state”, and “collapse” periods will be unknown. Since recordkeeping in the normal sense did not exist, unraveling this is a big challenge.