Wabunge wapitisha mswada muhimu Marekani

Bunge la Congress nchini Marekani limepitisha mswada ambao utadhibiti deni la nchi hiyo na kuepusha hatari ya serikali kukosa pesa.

Chama cha Democratic na wapinzani wake Republicans wameridhia na Mswada huo sasa utawasilishwa mbele ya baraza la senate. Baada ya wanasiasa wa marekani kutofautiana kuhusu kuongeza kiwango cha kukopa cha serikali, bunge la Congress hatimaye limepiga kura kuunga mkono mswada utakaowezesha serikali ya nchi hiyo kuongeza kiwango cha madeni yake.

Kufuatia kupitishwa kwa mswada huo, marekani haina wasi wasi tena kuwa itashindwa kufadhili shughuli zake kuanzia hii leo, kama ilivyokuwa imetangazwa na wizara ya fedha. Mswada huo umepata kuungwa mkono na wajumbe wengi katika baraza la wawakilishi wakati ulipowasilihsiwa kupigiwa kura. Kwa hivyo sasa umevuka kikwazo chake cha kwanza. Hata hivyo matokeo hayo hayakuwa suala ambalo lilishangaza.

Jambo ambalo lililokuwa geni ni kuwasili bungeni kwa mbunge wa congress Bi Gabrielle Giffords kwa mara yake ya kwanza tangu apigwe risasi kichwani mwezi January. Wajumbe wa baraza la congress ambao wamekuwa wakivutana kwenye mijadala mikali walisimama kwa pamoja na kumshangilia alipowasili kupigia kura mswada huo.

Mswada huo ambao pamoja na kuongeza kiwango cha serikali kukopa fedha za kuendesha shughuli zake pia umependekeza hatua za kupunguza matumizi ya serikali. Kuna kila uwezekano kuwa Rais Barack Obama atakuwa anatia saini kuudhinisha saa chache tuu kabla ya pesa zilizoko kwenye mfuko wa serikali kumalizika kulingana na ushauri wa wizara ya fedha.

Hapo jana Rais Barack Obama alitangaza kuwa chini ya makubaliano kati ya chama chake na kile cha Republicans serikali itapunguza matumizi yake kwa dollar trilioni moja katika kipindi cha miaka kumi ijayo.
Kwa wiki kadhaa, viongozi wa vyama hivyo wamekuwa wakivutana kuhusu njia bora ya kufuata kukabili madeni ya marekani. Hali ambayo ilitishia kukwamihsa shughuli za serikali.

Rais Obama amesema kuwa mpango ulioafikiwa sio ule aliotarajia lakini amelazimika kuukubali ilikuwezesha huduma za serikali kuendelea na madeni yake yalipwe. Utawala wa Rais Obama ulikuwa unakabiliwa na shinikizo kali kutoka kwa wapinzani kutoka chama cha Republican ambao walikuwa wanapinga pendekezo lake la kuwepo na mpango ambao utasitiri hali hadi mwisho wa mwaka ujao.

Chama cha Republicans kilitaka mpango huo uwepo hadi katikati ya mwaka ujao. Lakini sasa vyama hivyo vimekubaliana kuunda kamati maalum itakayotoa mapendekezo mapya mwezi Novemba.

Obama, Netanyahu face turning point

WASHINGTON — As Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel heads to the White House on Friday for the seventh meeting since President Obama took office, the two men are facing a turning point in a relationship that has never been warm.

By all accounts, they do not trust each other. President Obama has told aides and allies that he does not believe that Mr. Netanyahu will ever be willing to make the kind of big concessions that will lead to a peace deal.

For his part, Mr. Netanyahu has complained that Mr. Obama has pushed Israel too far — a point driven home during a furious phone call with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Thursday morning, just hours before Mr. Obama’s speech, during which the prime minister reacted angrily to the president’s plan to endorse Israel’s pre-1967 borders for a future Palestinian state.

Mr. Obama did not back down. But the last-minute furor highlights the discord as they head into what one Israeli official described as a “train wreck” coming their way: a United Nations General Assembly vote on Palestinian statehood in September.

Mr. Netanyahu, his close associates say, desperately wants Mr. Obama to use the diplomatic muscle of the United States to protect Israel from the vote, not only by vetoing it in the Security Council, but also by leaning hard on America’s European allies to get them to reject it as well.


Mr. Obama has indicated that he will certainly do the first. But it remains unclear how far Mr. Obama can go to persuade Britain, France and other American allies to join the United States in rejecting the move, particularly as long as Mr. Netanyahu continues to resist endorsing the pre-1967 lines.

From the day they first met, at the King David Hotel on July 23, 2008, when Mr. Obama, then the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, visited Israel, the two men have struck, at most, an intellectual bond. Mr. Netanyahu, as the leader of Israel’s conservative Likud Party, was far more comfortable with the Republican Party in the United States than with Mr. Obama, the son of a Muslim man from Kenya whose introduction to the Arab-Israeli conflict was initially framed by discussions with pro-Palestinian academics.

“Their relationship is correct at best,” said Judith Kipper, director of Middle East programs at the Institute of World Affairs. Mr. Netanyahu “likes the status quo, and he particularly identifies with conservative Republicans.”

Abraham H. Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League and a friend of Mr. Netanyahu’s, recalled that after the first meeting, Mr. Netanyahu walked out of the hotel and told him that he had been impressed with Mr. Obama’s intellect, and that the American presidency “was his to lose.”