NY Mayor Ed Koch-Obama telling Israel to negotiate with Hamas is like FDR telling Churchill to chat with Hitler prior to US involvement in WWII

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Former NYC Mayor Koch believes Obama favors better relations with Muslim countries even if it's at Israel's expense. (5th para. from end)

5/24/11, "Obama's Hostility to Israel Continues," Ed Koch, Real Clear Politics

"President Obama asking Israel to negotiate with Hamas, which seeks its total destruction, set forth in its basic covenant as important in the operation of its government in Gaza as are the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence to the American people, would be akin to F.D.R. telling Winston Churchill that he had to, in World War II before we entered that war, negotiate a settlement with Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany.

On leaving a movie theater over the weekend, a young African-American man about 40 years old who noticed I looked weary, asked if I would like to use the wall in front of which he stood to lean against. I declined with thanks and we struck up a conversation. He said, "What did you think of President Obama's speech?" I said, "I didn't like the part on Israel." He said, "Oh, that's too bad. I think he really likes Jews." I said, "I don't believe he is anti-Semitic, but I do believe he favors a better relationship with the Muslim countries, even if it is

• at Israel's expense."

If President Obama does not change his position, I cannot vote for his reelection. I've already made clear I won't vote for some crazy who urges we jettison Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid as federal programs. I can stay home.

President Obama's efforts to reassure supporters of Israel, at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) on May 22 did not reassure me. Those assurances reported by the Times today "that the United States commitment to Israel's long term security was ironclad," rings hollow, knowing iron breaks and was broken back in March 2010.

Adding to the lack of credibility on this issue of secure borders is what Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator said, reported in today's Times, "I am waiting to hear from Prime Minister Netanyahu. Does he accept the doctrine of two states on the 1967 lines with agreed swaps or not? (emphasis added). Before we hear that acceptance, we are just grinding water." And, he is Fatah.

• Imagine the response of Hamas.

President Obama's remarks have lifted up the spirits of Palestinians, who now believe he has given them the upper hand. Supporters of Israel, Jews and Christians, Democrats and Republicans, now is the time to make your positions known. Members of Congress, you are not potted plants. Let the President know you disagree with him. We must stand strong for Israel

• in this time of danger."

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6/1/11, "Koch Test," Tablet Magazine, Tevi Troy

"The former New York City mayor is starting to turn against Barack Obama. And when hizzoner goes for the Republican in a presidential contest, it’s always been bad news for his fellow Democrats."

Ed Koch was highly critical of then President Jimmy Carter's position on Israel. Carter became a one-term president.

US home prices officially in double dip, 46% of Massachusetts borrowers are underwater-CNBC

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"46 percent of Massachusetts borrowers are underwater"...51% of Minneapolis is in foreclosure. Prices going even lower.

5/5/11, "National Home Prices Double Dip," CNBC, Diana Olick

"It's official.

Home prices have double dipped nationwide, now lower than their March 2009 trough, according to a new report from Clear Capital.

It was inevitable, and it was predicted (by me for sure) that a surge in sales of foreclosed properties and a big push by banks to facilitate short sales

• would force home prices down dramatically.

Sales of bank-owned (REO) properties hit 34.5 percent of the market, according to the survey, resulting in a national price drop of 4.9 percent quarterly and 5 percent year-over-year. National home prices have fallen 11.5 percent in the past nine months, a rate not seen since 2008. Add short sales, where the bank allows the borrower to sell for less than the value of the mortgage, and

• prices have nowhere to go but down.

"With more than one-third of national home sales being REO (bank owned), market prices are being weighed down as many markets have not regained enough footing to withstand the strain of the high proportion of REO sales," says Clear Capital's Alex Villacorta.

You don't have to tell Los Angeles Realtor Bill Kerbox any of this. LA prices had been improving, and LA is still one of the nation's best performing metro markets right now. Recently, however, prices took a turn, now down 2.4 percent quarter to quarter thanks to

• 34 percent REO saturation.
  

"We have definitely seen a number of both short sales and foreclosed properties along the West Side here, and they have definitely taken a hit," bemoans Kerbox.

• "It hurts to have a very low comp pop up next to your beautiful new home."

While the usual subprime mortgage suspects, like California, Arizona, Florida and Nevada used to rule the foreclosure roost and still have high volumes of distressed properties, the mid-west is seeing a surge in REOs now, thanks to the plain old recession.

• 40 percent of the Chicago market is foreclosures,
  

• 43 percent in Cleveland and
  

• 51 percent in Minneapolis.
  

Home prices fell 8.7 percent in the Mid-West during the past three months compared to the previous quarter.

While the foreclosure crisis is abating on the front end, with fewer loans going newly delinquent, the pipeline of seriously delinquent loans is enormous. Banks are now ramping up the foreclosure process after the "robo-signing" paperwork scandal, but at their current pace it would take about four years to process all the bad loans through foreclosure

• and even longer to sell those homes out on the open market....

Nationwide more than a quarter of all homeowners with a mortgage are in a negative equity position, but in some markets, that number is far higher. 46 percent of Massachusetts borrowers

• are underwater, according to LendingTree."...

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