FROM ISRAEL TODAY

Israel has many concerns after Mubarak regime falls


Sunday, February 13, 2011
Ryan Jones

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Israel watched with muted concern over the weekend as former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak resigned after 30 years in power and millions of Egyptians celebrated for days on the streets of Cairo, marking what they hope is the end of dictatorial rule in their country.



The region has seen this kind of thing before, and historically it has not turned out well. But Israel has more immediate worries as Egypt is concerned.



First, while the peace between Israel and Egypt under Mubarak was cold, it still served to balance Israel’s rivalry with Iran and mounting tensions with Turkey. As the situation stands now, there is no regional Arab superpower tipping the scales in Israel’s favor.



“Egypt has completely lost its status in the area, while Turkey and Iran are on the way up,” former Israeli Ambassador to Cairo Zvi Mazel told Israel’s Ynet news portal. “As long as we had Mubarak, there was no void in our relations with the region. Now we’re in big trouble.”



Mazel also cautioned Egyptians not to get too optimistic. They may have removed Mubarak and his martial law, but Egypt will now be directly ruled by the military until new elections can be held and a consensus government can be formed, which could take a year or more.



And when elections are finally held, there is no telling who will emerge as Egypt’s next president, and whether or not he will ultimately become a dictator.



At present, former International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) directory Mohammed ElBaradei is emerging as the leading opposition figure. But ElBaradei is aligned with the radical Muslim Brotherhood, which has vowed to return Egypt to a state of war with Israel if it ever came to power.



The Brotherhood has said it will not directly contest the presidency, but exercising influence over a puppet like ElBaradei would be enough to drastically and catastrophically alter the regional balance that existed prior.



On Saturday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanked the Egyptian military for announcing that it will continue to honor all of Egypt’s international agreements. But there is no guarantee that won’t change once a new president is elected, depending on which party he hails from.



It should be remembered that Mubarak’s former boss and predecessor, Anwar Sadat, was assassinated by the Muslim Brotherhood because he made peace with Israel.



There is also growing concern in Israel that amidst the chaos, Egypt will lose control of the Sinai Peninsula, which will become a new terrorist breeding ground. Already there are reports that Egyptian police forces are abandoning positions that are coming under attack by local Sinai Bedouins.



“There is real concern that if the Egyptians don’t get the Sinai back under their control, it could develop into a major threat to Israel,” a senior government source told The Jerusalem Post.



And then there is US President Barack Obama and his role in this regime change and its aftermath.



Throughout the two weeks of anti-government protests when Obama was joining with many Egyptians in demanding Mubarak’s immediate ouster, the US president consistently failed to insist that whoever takes over Egypt next must honor its peace treaty with Israel.



Other world leaders, such as Germany’s Angela Merkel, felt it was fitting to directly address the issue. “We also expect future Egyptian governments to pursue peace in the Middle East so that the contracts were signed with Israel, are respected and that Israel’s security is guaranteed,” read Merkel’s statement released on Saturday.



Obama’s much longer response to Mubarak’s downfall did not mention Israel or Egypt’s peace agreement with the Jewish state at all.



Israeli media analyst Dr. Aaron Lerner summed up why this is so disconcerting to Jerusalem:



“The very unfortunate message from Mr. Obama to the Egyptians in particular and the Arab world in general is that as far as he is concerned, Egypt honoring peace with Israel is at best of tertiary importance in his eyes.”

FROM ISRAEL TODAY

Jordanian anti-government protests focus on queen


Wednesday, February 09, 2011
Ryan Jones

Jordanians appear to want badly to join in the wave of revolutions currently sweeping the region, but as one of the more stable and free Arab societies they simply don’t have much to protest over. So they are focusing on their queen as a point of contention with the nation’s rulers.



Jordan has a population of about seven million people. Over 60 percent of those people are “Palestinian Arabs,” as is Queen Rania. The rest of the Jordanians are of Bedouin stock originating from what is now Saudi Arabia. These are the people of King Abdullah II.



The heads of the 36 Bedouin tribes that make up the backbone of Abdullah’s political support in the country are insisting that Queen Rania downgrade her political and public profile.



Queen Rania “is building power centers for her interest that go against what Jordanians and Hashemites [Jordanians of Bedouin descent] have agreed on in governing and is a danger to the nation and the structure of the state and the political structure and the institution of the throne,” read a statement issued by the tribal leaders.



The Bedouin sheikhs are unhappy that Rania is such a public figure, both at home and abroad, and want the king to nurture a more traditional society where such activities are not the place of women. They are also displeased with the amount of state funds Rania spends on her endeavors, while many Jordanians live in relative poverty.



The Bedouin leaders were careful to not directly challenge the rule of Abdullah, which they do not oppose, but warned that ignoring their petition “will throw us into what happened in Tunis and Egypt.”



Israeli media noted that the petition is very indicative of the mounting tension between the Palestinian and Bedouin halves of Jordan’s population.



Abdullah headed off another potential source of anti-government demonstrations last week when he dismissed the cabinet and appointed a new prime minister, Marouf Bakhit.



This week Bakhit and Abdullah offered government portfolios to various opposition groups, including the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan. The Islamic group declined the offer, and instead said it would push for early elections with the hope of achieving a Brotherhood-dominated parliament.



While the kind of violence Egypt is currently witnessing is unlikely in Jordan at present, there are clearly forces at work that want to overthrow that nation and help close an Islamist ring around Israel (Lebanon is already now under the control of Islamists in the form of Hizballah).



A Christian source in the southern Jordan port of Aqaba told Israel Today that the Jordanian “street” is getting restless. The source and her family felt a very distinct sense of insecurity for non-Muslims that those who oppose the Islamist agenda.



PRAY FOR THE PEACE OF ISRAEL!!!!

FROM ISRAEL TODAY

UN promotes female terrorists as role models


Thursday, February 10, 2011
Ryan Jones

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The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) partnered recently with the Arab Producers Union for TV (APUTV) to produce and broadcast on 50 Middle East television stations a special campaign to advance women’s rights in the Arab world, according to the campaign’s website.



Dubbed the “White Hands Campaign,” it has been described by both the UNFPA and the APUTV as “the largest media campaign to support issues.”



The problem is that among the various women presented as role models in the White Hands television broadcast were terrorists and historical and current figures who advocate jihad.



Most of our readers will recognize the name Dalal Mughrabi. She is the female Palestinian terrorist who carried out the most deadly attack on Israeli civilians in the Jewish state’s modern history. In 1978, Mughrabi led a team of terrorists in an amphibious infiltration of the Israeli coast. They then hijacked bus full of Israeli civilians and killed all 37 of them.



The UN Population Fund felt it was appropriate to include Mughrabi as a role model for women across the Middle East.



Also included in the program was Al Khansa, a 7th century Arab poet who wrote joyously of the “martyrdom” of her four sons in battle against the enemies of Islam.



The White Hands website says these and the other women presented are “great models to be followed by the old or the young.”



Special thanks to Palestinian Media Watch for first bringing this issue to light.

FROM ISRAEL TODAY

Egypt's Western-assisted slide toward Islamic Revolution


Sunday, February 06, 2011
Ryan Jones

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It seems 40+ years and a lifetime of diplomatic headaches have not been enough to teach the West its lesson when dealing with uprisings and democracy in the Middle East.



In 1979, Iranians rose up against the repressive but stable rule of the shah, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi. America and Europe felt it was in the best interests of everyone involved to move the shah out of the way and throw open the doors to Western-style democracy. What they did was lay the groundwork for the Islamic Revolution and the rise to power of an even more repressive regime that now threatens the entire region.



And they are repeating the same mistake in Egypt.



When the demonstrations first began in Cairo on January 25, they were led by a large group of students with a list of specific demands. Having himself clearly learned the lesson of the shah’s overthrow, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak subsequently agreed to most of those demands, most importantly the demand that this be his last term in office and that he not establish a dictatorial dynasty with his son taking over next.



A Christian source in Cairo (whose name is being withheld for his own safety) says the uprising should have died down then and there.



“As we followed the unfolding of events including the announced change in government and president Mubarak’s speech, we wondered why the international news media is focusing only on the thousands in Tahrir Square who are escalating their demands and refusing dialogue,” said the source.



According to this man, something changed in the uprising after the first few days, after Mubarak had already agreed to most of the reforms demanded by the original protestors.



“What is happening now has nothing to do with this original protest. What is happening right now is a conspiracy to topple Mubarak from outside the country,” he said. That change coincided with the more visible participation in the uprising by the Muslim Brotherhood, a radical Islamic group with ties to extremists across the region.



But this Christian source suggested the situation is far more grave, and more methodical than just a handful of Brotherhood provocateurs entering the crowds.



“Only a few people (hundreds?) are still there from the original protesters,” he noted. “They have been slowly replaced by other highly organized groups that all carry the same model of cell phones and have the same blankets.”



There are even reports that these groups may not be Egyptians at all, with some eye witnesses saying they clearly do not speak Arabic with an Egyptian accent or in the local dialect.



“This is typical of the Muslim Brotherhood, and everybody on the streets of Cairo knows this. We heard people on the streets saying that the plot to take over the country is now clear,” revealed the source. “The escalation of violence…is because of this. Egyptians who love Egypt, the millions that took to the streets yesterday, want this to end.”



The West is afraid of the “Arab street” and is only being fed in that approach by the mainstream media. After all, violence and revolution make a much better story than compliance and smooth reform. In the meantime, average Egyptians like this Christian man and his family are ignored while the radical Islamists are given a global podium.



“Where are those, like myself, that want change and reform, but accept the changes that Mubarak is proposing, and want a peaceful transition through elections in September?” he wondered fruitlessly.



This man reported that over a million people had gathered last week in Cairo expressing acceptance of Mubarak’s proposed reforms and dialogue regarding the outstanding issues. And he said similar demonstrations had been held around the country. Over the weekend, the Mubarak government further complied with protestor demands when the old corrupt leaders of the president’s party all resigned.



“The cry of the people of Egypt is being totally ignored by the international news media,” he said, questioning, “Is this on purpose?”



If the Muslim Brotherhood does take over in Egypt (and it would do so by installing a sympathetic puppet like Mohammed ElBaradei), Israel would find itself direct neighbors with a new Islamic Republic that would dwarf the threat of Hizballah rule in Lebanon.



Israeli officials are furious at the way the US and Europe are handling the situation.



“I think the Americans still don’t realize the extent of the catastrophe into which they have pushed the Middle East,” Labor Party leader and former Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer told Army Radio.



Ben-Eliezer slammed the Obama White House’s inability to learn from the past:



“We learn from history. We remember what was said when Carter proposed that the Shah of Iran give up nicely and allow Khomeini to take his place. In Gaza, too, when the Americans came in, they supervised the democratic elections [via which Hamas came into power]. If there are elections in Egypt the way the Americans want, I will be surprised if the Muslim Brotherhood does not win. This will be a new Middle East - radical, Islamic and extremist.”



Likud lawmaker Ayoub Kara told visiting Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee that “it needs to be understood that if the Egyptian government will fall, the Muslim Brotherhood will take its place.” Kara said that Obama should also be learning from the mistakes in Iraq, where an American-style democracy has led to a “saturation of terror.”



A leading columnist for Israel’s largest daily newspaper, Yediot Ahronot, was even harsher, blasting Obama “selling Mubarak for a pot of lentils,” and “not understanding the Middle East.”



“Our conclusion in Israel needs to be that the man sitting in the White House is liable to ‘sell’ us over night,” concluded the columnist. “The thought that the US might not stand by our side in the day of need causes chills. God help us.”



Former Mossad chief Danny Yatom lamented that the Obama Administration had actually missed a golden opportunity. Yatom told Israel Radio that the situation was ripe for pressure on Mubarak to finally implement real reform, but the US should have worked with the Egyptian leader, not pushed him out of the way and opened the door to chaos. Now, said Yatom, Washington is going to get someone they can’t work with at all.

FROM ISRAEL TODAY

Christians slaughtered in southern Egypt


Sunday, February 06, 2011
Ryan Jones

Last week, just days after the demonstrations to reform or overthrow the Egyptian government got underway, Muslims in the south of the country took advantage of the general chaos to break into two homes belonging to local Coptic Christians and butcher every man, woman and child they could find.



The Muslim assailants massacred eleven people and seriously wounded four others. Two whole families were destroyed.



According to survivors of the attack who spoke to AINA, the Assyrian International News Agency, the attackers were aided by the Christians’ Muslim neighbors. Killed in the attack were a 15-year-old girl, an 8-year-old boy, a 4-year-old boy and a little girl only three years old.



There is spreading fear that if Egypt falls into the hands of the radical Muslim Brotherhood, godfather of extremist groups across the region, the 10 million Coptic Christians in Egypt will face severe persecution, or worse.



There is already evidence that the Christians of Egypt are in for a very bumpy ride going forward. On Sunday, the Muslim Brotherhood-led opposition agreed to sit down and talk with newly-appointed Vice President Omar Suleiman. The Christians were not invited to the table, despite being part of the original demonstrations demanding reform.

FROM ISRAEL TODAY

Abortion in Israel on the decline


Monday, February 07, 2011
Ryan Jones


The number of legal abortions performed in Israel dropped by 19 percent in recent years, according to statistics published by the Health Ministry.



Since its rebirth as a nation state nearly 63 years ago, an average of 40,000 Israeli babies have been lost to abortion every year. That’s well over two million unborn children terminated. With numbers like those, it’s very clear that Israel has a major abortion problem.



It doesn’t help that legal abortions are so easily approved in Israel that they have become a standard form of birth control.



So, any drop in the rate of legal abortions is seen as almost a miracle, an unprecedented counter-trend that we can only pray continues.



Two organizations are working hard to make sure the numbers continue to fall.



The pro-life organization Efrat caters primarily to the Orthodox Jewish community, but has been reaching out to Israelis in all walks of life. Be’ad Chaim, a Messianic-run organization, typically reaches a broader cross-section of Israeli society with centers across the country.



Both Efrat and Be’ad Chaim are dedicated to educating young women in unexpected pregnancies on how to handle an unplanned child. Both organizations strongly believe that financial concerns are the number one reason behind abortions, and so they focus a lot of effort on providing financial support to needy pregnant women.



Education regarding the development of the unborn children is also a major point, as both Efrat and Be’ad Chaim are Bible-believing organizations that ultimately view abortion as murder of the unborn.

FROM HERITAGE ACTION FOR AMERICA

Senate voted against repealing Obamacare




Conservative Pressure Strong



Londa,





On Wednesday night, the Senate voted against repealing Obamacare along party lines. But something changed: in September, 40 Senators supported repeal, on Wednesday 47 Senators voted for repeal.



This is because of the work done by conservatives like you. When we found out the vote would happen on Tuesday morning, we sent out a quick email. Within 24 hours, more than ten thousand of you contacted your senators!



This is what can happen when conservatives stay engaged and get involved. Stay tuned to our activist website for to continue making a difference in Washington.





Sincerely,







Tim Chapman

Chief Operating Officer

Heritage Action for America

1 CORINTHIANS 13 - LOVE




We cannot serve God without us having Charity (Love). Without love we are nothing. So love is the key that will unlock our hearts.



John 13:35

"By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."



John 15:13 & 14

13) "Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friend.

14) "You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.



1 John 3:14, 16, & 18

14) We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love the brother abides in death.

16) By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

18) My little children let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed & in truth.



1 Corinthians 13: 4 - 8a

4) Love suffers long & is kind; love does not envy, love does not parade itself, is not puffed up;

5) does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil;

6) does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth;

7) for us. bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

8) Love never fails.



God tells us to have love for one another. We should walk as the early church did in

1 Corinthians 13: We're supposed to do so.



Romans 12:9 &10

9) Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good.

10) Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving prefence to one another;



Love itself is more important then faith. Because without love we are nothing. As a Christian we

Have a responsibility to walk in love.

Now if a Christians connubially find fault with people it will do damage to their Spiritual life. Just walking out of love will cause that damage.

Christians should not be boastful or think more of them. Pride has never walked in love!!

We should exercise the Gift of Love. Because if we do not want to sound like a clanging cymbal. In other words not being empty & our words the same. If we do not walk in Gods love, we can never reach the lost, receive knowledge, understanding, or know the mysteries that God has.



Doing prophesy, speaking in tongues, both man tongues of angles, feed the children, help the poor, the widow. With out love what ever we do doesn't mean a thing!! You have to do those things with LOVE!



Love is & isn't

1 Corinthians 13 (these are not in order of the verses)

LOVE IS LONG-SUFFERING LOVE IS NOT EASILY PROVOKED

LOVE IS KIND LOVE DOESN'T ENVY

LOVE REJOICE IN TRUTH LOVE ISN'T BEING ARROGANT

LOVE BEARS ALL THINGS LOVE IS NEVER RUDE

LOVE BELIEVES ALL THINGS LOVE DOESN'T PROVOKED

LOVE HOPES ALL THINGS LOVE DOESN'T THINK EVIL

LOVE ENDURES ALL THINGS LOVE DOESN'T REJOICE IN SIN

LOVE NEVER FAILS



Love is the first of the Fruits of the Spirit! God loved you & me so very much that He sent His only begotten Son.



John 3:15 - 18

15) "that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.

16) "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

17) "For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

18) "He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.



LOVE HATES SIN!!

If we see sin in others we should never condemn them. We should never be fault finding. We should be like Jesus Christ & love them, pray for them, help them work through the sin so they can over come! LOVE them as Christ loved you & never condemn them!! Christ never condemned you. He gave His life for you. We should give our life for others in love. And you will right before God.

LOVE,
REV Londa

FROM TOWNHALL

Does Jimmy Carter Deserve To Be Sued?

Mona Charen
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Sign-Up In a suit filed in federal court in New York, former president Jimmy Carter, along with his publisher, Simon & Schuster, is being sued by five readers of his 2006 book, "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid." The suit alleges that the defendants violated New York's consumer protection laws by committing "deceptive acts in the conduct of business, trade, or commerce."



The plaintiffs, who hope to be considered a class, were "members of the reading public who thought they could trust a former president of the United States and a well-established book publisher to tell the truth..."



Does Carter deserve this trouble? Oh, yes, he deeply, richly deserves it. Should the suit prevail? More on that in a moment.



Carter has preened that "my role as a former president is probably superior to that of other presidents." Considering that he had four years as leader of the free world, the post-presidency claim sounds more like a bleat than a boast. And even still, it's false.



In fact, no former president including Richard Nixon has behaved as dishonorably as Carter. His post-presidency has been marked by truckling to America's enemies (North Korea, Syria, the PLO, Nicaragua) and actively impeding U.S. foreign policies of which he disapproved. Before the first Gulf War, for example, when President George H. W. Bush was attempting to assemble an international coalition to expel Saddam Hussein from Kuwait, Carter wrote a letter to the U.N. Security Council urging members not to cooperate with the U.S.



Carter's apologies for the United States make Obama's seem chauvinistic. Meeting with Haiti's dictator Raoul Cedras, Carter allowed as how he was "ashamed of what my country has done to your country." And explaining why other Americans took a skeptical view of Syria's Hafez al-Assad and North Korea's Kim II Sung, both of whom, he wrote, "have at times been misunderstood, ridiculed, and totally condemned by the American public," Carter surmises that this is in part because "their names are foreign, not Anglo-Saxon."



And then there is Carter's festering abhorrence of the Jewish state, which reached its fullest expression in "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid." The title expresses his sympathies and antipathies succinctly. It's a book about a land -- Israel -- that Carter would prefer become "Palestine." How else to interpret the latter part of the title -- "Peace Not Apartheid"? The leftist/Islamist slur against Israel is that it is a racist, apartheid state akin to South Africa and therefore lacking in legitimacy. Carter embraces this calumny.



And more. So much more. The book is a skein of falsehoods. Carter repeatedly gets history wrong -- as when he suggests that Israel attacked Jordan in the 1967 war. In fact, Israel pleaded with Jordan to remain neutral as it fought off Egypt and Syria. But Jordan elected to join the other Arab states in attempting to obliterate Israel. It lost Jerusalem and the West Bank as a consequence.



The former president surely knew, when he wrote this sentence, that it was completely untrue: "The unwavering official policy of the United States since Israel became a state has been that its borders must coincide with those prevailing from 1949-1967." In fact, no U.S. government, including Carter's, insisted on withdrawal to what Abba Eban called "Auschwitz borders."



Carter also repeatedly insinuates that U.N. Resolution 242 calls for such a withdrawal -- another lie. The resolution does speak of withdrawal, but was carefully crafted (against the objections of the Soviets) not to call for such a total pullout.



Carter writes that in the years since the Camp David accords, "The Israelis have never granted any appreciable autonomy to the Palestinians." Obviously, patently false. Concerning the 2000 Camp David/Taba negotiations, Carter suggests that both Israel and the Palestinian Authority rejected a compromise. But as former State Department chief negotiator Dennis Ross has countered, "Their (Israel's) government, meaning the cabinet, actually voted for it ... This is a matter of record, not a matter of interpretation." Carter's good friend Arafat walked away and started the second Intifada.



The former president's sloppiness -- or mendacity -- shows up on nearly every page of the book. He claims that an Arab document, the so-called "Prisoners Proposal," called for "a unity government with Hamas joining the PLO, the release of all political prisoners, acceptance of Israel as a neighbor within its legal borders... "



Or not. Here is Abdel Rahman Zeidan, a Palestinian minister, on the BBC: "You will not find one word in the document clearly stating the recognition of Israel as a state."



There's more. Carter's distaste not just for Israel but also for Jews is reflected in some of his anecdotes, as is his inexplicable attraction to autocrats and thugs in positions of power.



But a lawsuit is not the way to deal with this. The First Amendment trumps all. The courts cannot police books for accuracy -- not in America.



But the rest of us can.

FROM THE PATRIOT POST

Perhaps the Obama administration sees the handwriting on the wall for ObamaCare thanks to Judge Vinson, but that doesn't mean liberty-loving Americans shouldn't watch for end-runs around a patriotic judge who takes his oath seriously. Determined to make Americans eat in a more healthful manner, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack jointly announced earlier this week new federal nutritional guidelines emphasizing the importance of eating fruits and vegetables and cutting out sodium. Since the government has suggested we eat a certain way for years, it would seem to be nothing out of the ordinary.




However, a proposal on the table aroused interest -- subsidizing the purchase of fruits and vegetables for those millions of Americans now getting food assistance from the government. Based on a pilot program in Massachusetts, Vilsack explained, "The grocer basically gets paid full value for the fruit or vegetable that's being purchased but it's only credited, say, 70 or 80 percent on the card." In essence, for each dollar charged by the grocery store the recipient gets a discount on the amount deducted from the state-issued debit card.



Of course, given that small step it wouldn't be hard to foresee the opposite for foods deemed bad for you -- that Twinkie may be $1 in the store but $2 off the card. It's all because Beltway bureaucrats -- led by the smoker-in-chief, by the way -- believe they know best.



Administration Held in Contempt

U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman held the Obama administration in contempt Thursday for "determined disregard" in continuing its offshore drilling moratorium in spite of that moratorium being struck down in court. The administration enacted the ban in May after BP's Gulf spill in April. It was struck down in June, but the White House simply tweaked a few things and renewed the ban. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement is sitting on 103 permits.



"Each step the government took following the court's imposition of a preliminary injunction showcases its defiance," Feldman wrote. "Such dismissive conduct, viewed in tandem with the re-imposition of a second blanket and substantively identical moratorium, and in light of the national importance of this case, provide this court with clear and convincing evidence of the government's contempt." We're glad someone else has noticed.



Staggering Number of U.S. Homes Vacant

Since the housing market took us into the recession of 2008, will a recovery in housing demand spark a greater recovery in the economy as a whole? Don't count on it. As of this week, a staggering 11 percent of all homes in the United States are vacant. This statistic includes homes that have been foreclosed on as well as those few remaining homes built to be resold, a "spec home" in banker lingo.



Banks will sell a foreclosed property if possible, or lease it if necessary. But with an 11 percent vacancy rate, the probability is that homes are not being marketed due to lack of demand. With the decline in owner occupancy the demand for rental housing has increased, though that doesn't completely solve the problem. Lenders are holding many homes off the rental market, hoping that demand will recover with the lengthening of days and the greening of lawns.



Buyers are needed to initiate a recovery. Given the experiences of the current crop of homeowners, potential first-time buyers are saying "no thanks." They don't see a benefit to taking on debt to acquire a fixed asset that could decline in value. There are few signs that millions of new homebuyers are going to appear, meaning this problem may be with us for some time.