Government spending good money on silly projects (The Malaysian Insider)

Malaysia Finance minister re-iterate again yesterday on its stand on no plan to reduce individual income tax rate from RM27bil subsidies allocated for various industry including corporation tax reliefs.
While some are claimed the money were not well spent. What is your say?

Government spending good money on silly projects- The Malaysian Insider
FEB 27 — Economic stimulus is all the rage it seems, both in the United States and back home in Malaysia. While I am sceptical of stimulus in general, our government’s spending plans are increasingly ridiculous and insensible day by day. Instead of leaving the era of white elephant megaprojects behind, we seem to be pursuing less obscenely grandiose but equally impractical infrastructure projects.

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The basic idea in the minds of stimulus and economic pump-priming proponents is that it is cheaper to borrow money in a recession. People and firms are not confident in the economy, and so they are reluctant to lend money out to any random person. Fortunately, the government can soak up these surplus funds and invest them in something useful for a low cost.

That is the theory anyway; the reality is that the government rarely seems to do much useful investing with our money. Yes, granted, they have brought a lot of “development” to our shores. The North-South Expressway, our various ports, our schools, our universities, so on and so forth — all good stuff. But for almost every good project, you can name an equal number which are just downright bad ideas.

To take one egregious example, the federal government is presently proposing to spend RM9 billion on the “Pahang-Selangor Raw Water Transfer Project”. The crux of the project is that it wants to build a gigantic pipeline to funnel water from Pahang to Selangor. Why? Because the federal government believes that by next year we will be facing severe water shortages in Selangor unless this pipeline is built.

The problem is that it has made similar projections before and been severely wide of the mark. Its original projections indicated a shortage would arise by 2005; no such shortage came about. The government is assuming we’ll be consuming 600 litres of water per person per day in Selangor, when the typical Singaporean consumes a bit over 300 litres per day, and the typical urban denizen in a developed country even less! At the moment the consumption in Selangor is 300 litres per person per day, but for no good reason whatsoever, the federal government insists we will somehow run short of water unless we build this RM9 billion white elephant.

And we can go on to name all sorts of similar projects. What about that harebrained idea of transporting electricity across the South China Sea from the Bakun Dam in Sarawak? Or the white elephant of a Customs outpost for the unused crooked bridge development? These are all projects that have been in the works for years and years — yes, even that ridiculous scheme to build a useless giant water pipe from Pahang to Selangor.

Now, if the government takes its own bloody sweet time and still comes up with these inane wastes of money, can we really expect anything better from the stimulus package? The government is going to be rushing itself like crazy to get the package out the door as soon as possible, and that means there will be hardly any checks on the projects that go into this package. Honestly, I would be shocked and happy if the ridiculous projects in the stimulus package we finally see are only equally pointless as the others I just listed.

Really, the biggest problem with our economy as far as government spending goes isn’t that the government does not spend enough. The problem is the government spends money on very silly and very pointless projects which don’t yield any real benefits for us. There are a lot of good things the government could be spending its money on.

Here’s an idea for a stimulus: raise the salaries of teachers and provide more and better training for them. Honestly, even if the government can’t really train teachers properly, RM9 billion would be much better off being spent on paying teachers better wages or training them better, as opposed to being spent on a stupid pipeline or building even more schools. Or another actual good idea: upgrading and expanding public transport in all major urban areas. We can argue about whether these are the best ways to spend our taxes, but there is no question that education and public transport deserve priority over harebrained schemes like building a dam to produce electricity which will just be lost in transit across the South China Sea.

As sympathetic as I am to some of the ideas behind economic stimulus, I honestly believe the government’s stimulus package is going to be a bad thing for our economy. Most of the spending will be just as redundant and as pointless as the government’s past track record on infrastructure-building and other such spending projects, if not much worse. The government has been unable to get its priorities right for years and years, and there is no sign at all that this will change.

If Pakatan Rakyat is smart, it will capitalise on its plans and manifestos to point the right way. Both the DAP and PKR especially have well-developed plans which will provide for the poorest income groups while removing severe restrictions on private enterprise. Pakatan’s plans, though far from perfect, are very much in line with basic economic principles, and could prove a deadly weapon against Barisan Nasional’s ridiculously poor track record of throwing money at whatever constituencies have by-elections, and building white elephant after white elephant. The upcoming stimulus package could very well be Barisan’s undoing, if Pakatan plays its cards right.
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Saudis create anti-Israel Palestinian "militia" in Gaza to combat Hamas (DEBKAfile)

Not sure how true the article claims but I used to hear old saying: "If you fight fire with fire, both sides will end up get burnt! "

Palestinian "militia" in Gaza to combat Hamas
DEBKAfile's military sources disclose that Saudi intelligence services are deep in recruitment for a new radical Islamist terrorist militia in the southern Gaza Strip towns of Deir al Balakh, Khan Younes and Rafah, with Egyptian blessing. More than 1,000 Palestinians have joined up in two weeks, poached from the extreme Hamas fringes and the Salafi sects.

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Recruiters promise greater militancy against Israel than Hamas and Jihad Islami combined.

The new Gaza group is intended to complement the pro-Saudi organization established in southern Lebanon in January, part of a new Riyadh project to establish a chain of Islamist, Taliban-style fighting cadres under Saudi control for combating the pro-Iranian and al Qaeda terrorist organizations strung across the Middle East.

The Saudis are pumping into southern Gaza weapons, cash and dozens of military instructors for a strong infrastructure. This flow could not have taken place through Egyptian territory without Cairo's knowledge and approval.

DEBKAfile's Middle East sources disclose the hand behind this grand design is the Saudi intelligence chief Prince Muqrin Abdul Aziz. He has used Hamas leaders' absence and their preoccupation in Cairo with prisoner swap negotiations with Israel and Palestinian unity talks to lay the groundwork for the pro-Saudi Palestinian terror group in the Gaza Strip.

The organization up and running in S. Lebanon, dubbed the Arab Islamic Resistance Organization, soon challenged pro-Iranian Hizballah's domination of South Lebanon by becoming the first non-Hizballah element ever to stage a comprehensive "war game" close to the Israeli border without Iran's proxy interfering.

Exercises included chemical warfare drill, a sign that the Saudis are preparing to arm their new terrorist network with sophisticated means of war.
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Who are the deadly terrorists Israel refuses to release for Shalit? (Haaretz)

"NO DEAL" says PM Ehud Olmet when the list involving captured terrorists. Not so optimistic on the success of this "trade"...

Who are the deadly terrorists Israel refuses to release for Shalit?
Egyptian-brokered negotiations over a deal for the release of abducted Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit hit an impasse this weekend after Israel refused to free all 450 long-serving Palestinian prisoners sought by Hamas.

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Negotiator Ofer Dekel told cabinet members on Tuesday that Israel has agreed to release about 325 prisoners on the list, 144 of whom would be send abroad or to the Gaza Strip. The others would be allowed to return to their homes.

The cabinet decided after a special three-hour briefing on the negotiations Tuesday to publicize the list of Palestinian prisoners Hamas has demanded be freed.
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Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had balked at releasing those who orchestrated the deadliest bus and cafe bombings that have killed scores of Israelis since the outbreak of a Palestinian uprising in 2000, political sources said.

The cabinet decided after a special three-hour briefing on the negotiations Tuesday to publicize the list of Palestinian prisoners Hamas has demanded be freed.

The list includes hundreds of prisoners with "blood on their hands," including terrorists sentenced to multiple life terms.

Partial list of prisoners Israel refuses to free:

Ibrahim Hamed
Head of the Hamas military wing in the West Bank city of Ramallah. He was charged with planning terror attacks in which 36 Israelis were murdered,
including the attacks on the Cafe Moment and Hebrew University cafeteria, both in Jerusalem.

His trial is ongoing.


Hassan Salama
Head of Hamas' Jerusalem branch, respomsible for two suicide bombings on the city's No. 18 bus in 1996 and for a suicide bombing in Ashkelon the same year.

He was arrested following the attacks and sentenced to 49 life sentences.


Abdullah Barghouti
Senior bombmaker for Hamas' military wing in the West Bank. He was convicted of planning terror attacks in which 66 Israelis were murdered and hundreds hurt, including the attack on a Sbarro restaurant in Jerusalem.

He was sentenced to 67 life terms in 2003.


Abbas Sayid
Head of the Hamas military wing in Tul Karm. He was convicted of planning terror attacks in which 35 Israelis were murdered and hundreds hurt, including the attack on the Park Hotel in Netanya in 2002.

Sayid was sentenced to 35 life terms in 2006.


Mahand Sharim
Sayed's deputy, involved in planning the suicide attack on the Park Hotel in Netanya in 2002.


Ra'ad Hutri
One of the masterminds of the attack on the Dolphinarium in Tel Aviv, which killed 22 young Israelis. He was also involved in suicide attacks in Neve Yamin and at the Bar Ilan Bridge.


Jamal Abu al-Haiga
Hamas' leader in Jenin, sentenced to nine life terms for his involvement in suicide bombings at the Hadera Mall, at the Sbarro restaurant in Jerusalm. He also planned a number of other attacks from his home in Jenin.


Muath Bilal
Sentenced to 26 life sentences for the deaths of 26 Israelis. He was involved in suicide bombings at the Mahane Yehuda market in Jerusalem and on the Ben Yehuda pedestrian mall in 1997.


Bahij Badr
Responsible for the death of 18 Israelis in suicide bombing in Tzrifin, at the Hillel Cafe in Jerusalem and in south Tel Aviv.

Partial list of prisoners Israel is willing to free into exile


Saeed Badarna
Given life sentence for involvement in suicide bombing at Hadera Central Bus Station, in which five Israelis were killed. He was also involved in shooting and bombing attacks across the West Bank.


Abed al-Latif Shakir
Fatah militant, over 50 years old, given life sentence for his involvement in the murder of Israeli Defense Forces soldier Akiva Shaltiel in 1995 and for planting an explosive device at a cinema in Tel Aviv in 1986.


Nasser Nazl
Hamas militant who sent a suicide bomber to the Bar Ilan Bridge, killing one Israeli.


Zeir al-Kilani
Given life sentence for planting explosives on Allenby Street and at the Dolphinarium Beach in Tel Aviv. He was also responsible for detonating a bomb inside a taxi at the Ben-Ami Junction, killing one Israeli.

Mohammed al-Karm
Hamas militant sentenced to 15 life terms for his role as mastermind of a suicide bombing on a Haifa bus in 2001, in which 15 Israelis died.


Walid al-Najs
Given 26 life terms for involvement in planning suicide bombings and for deploying the explosives used in attempted attacks in central Israel.


Ibramim Shmasana
Participated in the murders of the youths Ronen Karmani and Lior Tovol in 1990, and in the murder of taxi driver Rafi Doron in the same year.


Iad Shladala
Hamas activist who killed Sasson Nuriel following his kidnap in 2005.
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No recognition of the evil State (PIC)

I have been following Khalid's comment for quite sometime...
Today he had published another article from Palestinian side of story...

No recognition of the evil State (PIC-Khalid Amayreh)
"Madam Secretary of State, you must realize that neither Hamas nor any other dignified Palestinian group, shall willingly and sincerely recognize the criminal state called Israel. This is a matter of religion, pure and simple. "

No recognition of the evil State (PIC) By Khalid Amayreh
“Bushama” and “Bush-lite,” are some of the epithets being used by many ordinary people around the world in reference to the Obama administration.

And while it may be somewhat premature to pass a final judgment on George Bush’s successor in the White House, the signs from Washington are not encouraging.

Obama has already surrounded himself with a large number of Israel Firsters from Rohm Emanuel to Dennis Ross. He has also shown signs of surrendering rather miserably to congressional pressure, especially on matters pertaining to Israel. The latest “Freeman affair” is surely a worrying example.

Congress, as we all know, is a Jewish, or more correctly, Israeli occupied territory, and many senators and congressmen and women prefer to be more responsible and more loyal to AIPAC than to their own constituencies.

The reasons for this shameful subservience to organized Jewish power have to do with two main factors: financial enslavement to Jewish money and the lack or absence of moral credentials on the part of the bulk of American politicians, especially at the national level.

AIPAC, the wicked American-Israeli Public Affair Committee, is dedicated to exploiting America and its immense resources to the fullest for Israel’s sake. Indeed, the satanic organization’s raison d'être is essentially to bribe, blackmail and if necessary intimidate American politicians and officials to support Israel, absolutely and unconditionally.

See, for example, how that notorious, Alan Dershowitz, is intimidating American academics and institutions that dare question Israeli terrorism. In short, main-street America is either enslaved or terrorized by the Zionist monster.

The matter is crystal clear and no amount of prevarication and verbal juggling can obfuscate the facts.

Ill-signs
The latest messages from Washington indicate that the Obama administration will follow, more or less, the same policies that the former ignoramus of the White House adopted toward the Palestinian issue.

According to reports from the American capital, the US will not deal with a Palestinian government comprising Hamas and other organizations unwilling to surrender to Israeli blackmail, especially an unconditional recognition of the legitimacy of the evil state.

Moreover, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a close friend of the Jewish Lobby, reportedly warned the increasingly weak Palestinian Authority (PA) leader Mahmoud Abbas against building a partnership with Hamas.

Clinton reportedly warned that the $900 million pledged to the PA earlier this month would be withdrawn if the prospective Palestinian government of national unity didn’t recognize Israel.

Well, Mrs. Clinton, in this case keep your money; we don’t need it. Or you may if you wish give it to the new Judeo-Nazi government in Israel to build more colonies in occupied Palestine.

No recognition of a Nazi state
Madam Secretary of State, you must realize that neither Hamas nor any other dignified Palestinian group, shall willingly and sincerely recognize the criminal state called Israel. This is a matter of religion, pure and simple.

Needless to say, an entity that can only be sustained through the perpetration of crimes, nearly on a daily basis, is not worth maintaining, let alone recognizing.

In any case, Palestinians, especially the dignified amongst them who I believe constitute the majority, are not going to commit moral suicide, so that they may be recognized as “rehabilitated” by America. Indeed, if our legitimacy as a people depends on recognizing the murderous Israel and subsequently obtaining from America a certificate of good conduct, we will then prefer to remain “terrorist.”!!!

This is because evil must never be accepted as legitimate, and Israel is an intrinsically evil entity.

Israel has always been and will always be a crime against humanity. The occupation of Palestine by Zionism was an act of rape and will always be an act of rape. It doesn’t matter that Israel is recognized by many states as “legitimate.” Wrong doesn’t become right if and when 51% of the people say it is. A theft is a theft, and a thief doesn’t become saint if he or she is not caught or punished. Nor does the stolen property become a “rightful possession of the thief” after the passage of 42 or 61 years.

Maybe someone would argue that realism requires taking a pragmatic approach and that Israel is a geopolitical reality and that the Palestinians ought to recognize Israel for their own sake.

Well, it is true that Israel is a reality. But it is an evil, satanic reality just as Nazi Germany was an evil reality. What else can be said of a state that rains White Phosphorus bombs and other missiles of death on innocent civilians sleeping in their homes in Gaza?

A state that slaughters en mass and incinerates and maims thousands of innocent people from high altitudes and then claims that the crimes were carried out by mistake is a Nazi state that has no right to exist.

How could you, Madam Secretary, shake hands with these vile criminals who are responsible for the murder of thousands of innocent people?

What kind of Christian are you? What kind of human are you? True Christians (and true human beings) are not supposed to walk in the path of evil. You are not only walking in the path of evil; you are actually doing it, promoting it, and encouraging it.

Are you an evil lady, Madam Secretary? I am asking the question because a good human-being wouldn’t tell hideous war criminals “we will always stand behind you.”

For sure, shortly you shall meet your maker and He will hold you accountable for your hypocrisy, depravity of thinking and evil conduct. So, let your conscience wake up before it is too late.

Madam Secretary, it is increasingly clear that the manifestly unjust policies you are adopting towards the Palestinian people, long oppressed and tormented by a cruel entity that has effectively morphed America from a Wilsonian country into a Hitlerian empire, are corroding America from within and accelerating its demise.

The current economic mega-crisis facing the United States and much of the world has undoubtedly everything to do with Israel and America’s enduring embrace of Israeli Nazism. God has peculiar ways of settling scores with evildoers.

Wasn’t it Israel that caused 1.5 billion Muslims to hate America? Wasn’t it Israel that made America a bad name all over the globe? Wasn’t it Israel that got America involved in endless wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and many other countries? Wasn’t it Israel that cajoled or bullied America to carry out the so-called “war on terror” which is actually a war on the enemies of Israeli Nazism?

It is these wars that eventually destroyed your economy, Madam Secretary, but you don’t have the guts to face America’s real enemies, the very self-worshipers who are willing rather enthusiastically to sacrifice the last American soldier and last American dollar to serve Israeli interests.

In the Quran, Islam’s holy scriptures, there is a verse about a certain type of evildoers who “won’t believe until they see and feel the harsh punishment.” Maybe, Madam Secretary, this applies to you and the rest of the American political class who have eyes that see not, ears that hear not, nor do they understand.

To Arab despots
And now, a few words to Arab tyrants from Bahrain to Morocco who are trying to tell us that our enemy is Iran not Israel.

Well, when will you ever understand? Are you drunk? Are you stupid? Are you blind? Can’t you realize that your disgraceful embrace of the false American Qibla (1) is causing irreparable damage to the cause of Sunni Islam. Don’t your advisors and intelligence apparatuses and think tanks tell you that your continued whoring subservience to the American hubal (2) will make more and more Muslims and Arabs shun “the corrupt religion of the Sultan” in favor of truly dignified symbols of resistance, such as Hamas, Hizbullah and Iran.

Yes, Iran may not be perfect and some of its policies are problematic and even reprehensible. But Iran at least respects itself and is proudly able to say “No” to America and Israel. But you, who claim to be the true followers of Muhammed (peace be upon him), continue to vie among yourselves to please and appease your American masters who themselves are enslaved by Zionism. So, in a certain sense, you are more than just slaves. You are actually slaves of slaves. As such, it may be futile to expect any good from you.

So try, for your own interests, to display a modicum of personal and national dignity vis-à-vis the US and the West.

Have you lost all semblance of national pride? Is clinging to power so paramount that you are willing to sacrifice anything and everything for it?

Surely, history will not be kind to you. History can’t be kind to people who don’t respect themselves and their peoples and countries. A leader, let alone an unelected leader, who doesn’t respect his own people, will not be respected, neither by friend nor by foe.

Do people relate kindly to the memory of Abu Rughal (3) or Shawar (4), or Ibn al Alkami (5), or Abu Abdullah al Sagheer? (6)

Surely, you won’t be viewed any better when you meet your ineluctable fate.

1- Qibla is the direction toward which Muslims turn their faces during prayer (Makkah).

2- Hubal or Hobal is the great pagan idol image at the Ka’aba prior to the advent of Islam. The idol was destroyed by the Prophet Muhammed upon his victorious return to Makkah in the year 8 A.H. or 630 A.D.

3. Abu Rughal (Righal) is the pre-Islamic traitor who guided the forces of Abraha al Ashram, the Abyssinian King of Yemen to Makkah to destroy the Kaaba. According to Islamic traditions, the army of al-Ashram was eventually destroyed through divine intervention.

4-Ibn al Alkami collaborated with the armies of Hulago to destroy the Abbasid Caliphate in Baghdad.

5- Shawar was the Chief advisor and minister of the last Fatimide dynasty caliph in Egypt who collaborated with the armies of the Franks against the forces of Saladin.

6. Abu Abdullah al Sagheer is the last Arab ruler of Cordova. When his kingdom was finally conquered by the Iberian forces of King Ferdinand and Isabella, his mother told him “weep like women a lost kingdom that you didn’t keep like true men”.
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Tenaga is most profitable firm in Khazanah's stable (TheStar)

Being the SOLE Electricity provider in the Nation, is this not expected? I wonder if this due Electricity tariff hike last year?

Interview between Tenaga CFO & Reuters-Sep'2007

Tenaga is most profitable firm in Khazanah's table
KUALA LUMPUR: Tenaga Nasional Bhd was the most profitable government-linked company (GLC) under Khazanah Nasional's management in 2008 with a profit of RM2.594bil.

Deputy Finance Minister Datuk Kong Cho Ha said Bumiputra Commerce Holdings Bhd was the second most profitable at RM1.952bil for the same fiscal year.

Replying to Datuk Baharum Mohamed (BN - Sekijang), he said they were two of the eight Khanazah-managed GLCs that made profits in 2008.

The rest were Telekom Malaysia Bhd (RM791.9mil), TM International Bhd (RM497.98), Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (RM305.2mil), Malaysia Airline System Bhd (RM244.31), Proton Holdings Bhd (RM184.55mil) and UEM World Bhd (RM80.37mil).

To a supplementary question from Baharum, Kong said the Government was satisfied with the perfomance of the GLCs' respective management and staff and disagreed with Baharum's allegations that they were unsupportive of the Government.

"I disagree with the statement that the CEOs of the GLCs do not support the Government.

"They have carried out their duties and responsibility as expected of them to maintain the companies' performance.

"In their work, they have also held corporate social responsibility programmes for the public," he said.
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Israel waiting for Hamas response to Shalit offer(Haaretz)

Shalit still at stake...1 for Many?

Israel waiting for Hamas response to Shalit offer
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's special envoy on the Gilad Shalit issue traveled abroad yesterday for talks on a possible deal for the release of the captive Israel Defense Forces soldier, as a security source familiar with the negotiations said Israel was waiting for a Hamas response to its latest offer.

"The key is now with Hamas, and we are waiting for their response on the list of prisoners we gave them so that we can progress," the source said. Advertisement

On Sunday night the Shalit deal envoy, Ofer Dekel, relayed to Hamas a new list of Palestinian prisoners that Israel is willing to free in exchange for Shalit's release. The list, which was submitted through Egyptian mediators, is a revision of an earlier list rejected by Hamas.

Israel is still waiting to hear from Egypt on whether Hamas is willing to negotiate in Cairo over the prisoners' release. "If they agree, it will be possible to achieve progress," the security source said yesterday.

The Prime Minister's Bureau said Dekel was not scheduled to go to Cairo this week.

Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu initiated a conversation with Shalit's father, Noam Shalit, yesterday. No details were released about the content of the conversation.

The Shalit family, along with members of an organization dedicated to the captive soldier's release, have repeatedly said they were concerned that efforts to secure Gilad Shalit's release would suffer when Netanyahu becomes prime minister.

"We will be in a restart position," one member of the organization said.

The Shalit family also met yesterday with Aliza Olmert, the wife of the outgoing prime minister, who said the government was working hard to bring Shalit home.

"I hope that the prime minister will be able to complete the exchange during the short time he has left in office," she said. "There is no wall separating the prime minister's residence from the protest tent in front of it. I identify with them completely, and were I not witness to the intensive efforts being made to gain [Shalit's] release, I would certainly join the protesters at the tent."

Earlier, the Shalit family had lunch with President Shimon Peres at the President's Residence.

Meanwhile, Tami Arad, wife of the missing air force navigator Ron Arad, called for the release of all the prisoners Hamas is demanding in exchange for Shalit's release.

"There has been plenty of time to haggle over the price," Arad told Army Radio. "Let's assume that three more years will pass and the price will drop to 380 murderers, will we feel better? Who can guarantee that there will be someone to come back?"

Other family members of abducted soldiers also got involved in the fight to free Shalit.

Zvi Regev, the father of Eldad Regev, who was killed in a Hezbollah attempt to abduct IDF soldiers in July 2006 - shortly after Shalit was abducted by Palestinian militants from the Gaza border - visited the protest tent yesterday. Other visitors included the father of Benny Avraham, who was kidnapped and killed in 2000 by Hezbollah, and the parents of Nachshon Wachsman, who was kidnapped by Hamas in 1994 and died during a failed IDF rescue attempt.

"We suffered this for a week, and they are suffering for three years," said Wachsman's father, Yehuda. "I don't know how they are holding on."
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