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Expectations of the season

Thursday, December 25, 2008

ON THIS DAY the world's eyes look to a small town in the Holy Land, almost irrespective of religion - or at least with more than religious affiliation in mind.

Once again this year the international media recorded Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas's respectful attendance at this morning's Bethlehem ceremonies, following the precedent set by Yassir Arafat back in the mid-1990s - and reminding us that as well as much else Jesus of Nazareth is an honored prophet to Muslims.

 

The year-end ceremony also reminds us how, back in January, Holy Land cameras and microphones captured the visiting US President George W Bush bragging crassly that "There will be a signed peace treaty by the time I leave office".

 

There is, of course, no chance.

 

Pilgrims had to pass through an Israeli army checkpoint to get into Bethlehem, cut off as it is from Jerusalem (pictured above) by the Israelis' 12-feet high concrete wall - part of their now-infamous West Bank "separation barrier". And the militarily enclosed peace of Manger Square was crudely countered by reports from Gaza yesterday of Hamas fighters pounding Israel with cross-border rockets and mortar fire. A press release said these were "to avenge the killing" of three Hamas members by the Israeli army late on Tuesday.

 

It's hard to describe the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a forgotten war, but it certainly hasn't gained much serious American media attention as Bush's ludicrous target-date for an agreed settlement approaches. The Gaza attacks appear to confirm that the recent Egyptian-brokered truce, which expired six days ago, won't be renewed, and Israel is threatening a major offensive on Gaza. For its part Hamas has warned it would retaliate to such an offensive by resuming suicide attacks inside the Jewish state.

 

What a package to to be handing to the new incomer at the White House.

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THE PRESIDENT LEAVING OFFICE HAS BEEN every bit as judicious back home as when abroad in choosing his words.

 

I was intrigued to see correspondents preferring to paraphrase him while reporting his farewell appearance before those free-marketeering champions, the American Enterprise Institute.

 

Bush's written speech was carried verbatim, as you'd expect, but his remarks during a more informal Q & A with the Institute's top man, Christopher DeMuth, were more obliquely treated by the media.

 

For the Associated Press, DC-based Jennifer Loven wrote that Bush "didn't want to leave a mess for Barack Obama". (Though it's tempting to think here of everything from the Middle East to Afghanistan to Wall Street to US heartland unemployment, he was in fact talking about the Detroit auto industry.) Just as delicately as in AP's despatch, the Dow Jones news service's Henry J. Pulizzi was prompted to slip into indirect reported speech, saying that Bush "felt an obligation not to drop a mess on the desk of the President-elect".

 

What actual quotation were they avoiding? Well, what the imminently-ex Chief Executive actually said was this:

 

"I've thought about what it would be like for me to become President during this period. I have an -- I believe that good policy is not to dump him a major catastrophe in his first day of office."

 

How reassuring. We will miss this man's refinement, among many other qualities.

 

 

 

SOME PEOPLE NEAR THE TOP IN BANKING WON'T BE missing too much at this year's end.

 

'Tis the season of course for bonuses. And the sometimes rather resourceful ABC's World News team attempted a helpful public service recently by issuing a questionnaire sixteen US banks that received taxpayers' money as part of the $700 billion bail-out, asking about just how the money is being used, including specifically how much is being allocated to bonuses and incentives this year.

 

None were prepared to be that specific. The overall message, however, is that, while bonuses might be reduced in some cases, every one of these now publicy-subsidized financial institutions will still be paying out some.

 

Morgan Stanley is probably not untypical in having a bonus pool that's just about half the size of last year's - but (not that they admitted this to ABC) it still stands at $2 billion. That should enable quite a few executives to still receive their six- to seven-figure pay-outs. Goldman Sachs, meanwhile, will demurely cap its partners’ cash payouts at a paltry $222,000 (though it's also going to pay them in stock).

 

Amid circumstances of such largesse, even in troubled times, I can only repeat the annual words of the newspaper that I spent my teens devouring - the home-delivered Manchester Evening News (whose cosy self-description was "a friend dropping in").

 

Every year at this time "The News" would arrive emblazoned with the cheery, red-inked wish: "And A Merry Christmas To All Our Readers".

 

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