If there is Grass on the Field, Play Ball: 14-Year-Old Girl Buys House In Florida

(NPR) Meet Willow Tufano, age 14: Lady Gaga fan, animal lover, landlord.

Let me know when she's legal. I need to marry someone who isn't homeless. I could also use some of the Soros exposure from NPR. Oh... yeah... I would.

China About To Collapse? The Price of Land in Beijing Slumped 73% In August

From Al Fin (Astute Stuff @ Bloomberg):“We’re reaching a tipping point where land sales are dropping much faster than before, developers are losing more access to bank financing, and housing prices are showing weakness,” Nomura’s Zhang said in an interview in Beijing yesterday.

...The price of land in Beijing slumped 76 percent in August from a month earlier, while in Guangzhou it plummeted 53 percent, according to Soufun. Land auction failures surged 242 percent in the first seven months of this year because of government curbs on the property market, the Beijing Times reported Aug. 3. ...Funding problems are just “the tip of the iceberg” and “sharp declines in property sales and prices are likely in the next two to three months,” said Shen Jianguang, an economist at Mizuho Securities Asia Ltd. in Hong Kong. ...“The risk of China replaying the hard landing of 2008 is increasing as the property sector cools and exports weaken,” Shen said. “ I fear that once the real economy deteriorates and officials do loosen policies, it will already be too late.” _Bloomberg
Al Fin comment:When global markets contracted in the 2008 crash, China lost a huge portion of its export income. Without its economic mainstay, China was forced to create an artificial real estate boom inside its own borders, to boost GDP and support employment. China's ongoing construction and real estate bubble has consumed a huge proportion of global commodities production -- helping to support the economies of commodities producing nations. Go read the whole thing. 

Daphni Leef: How a woman in a tent became Israel's top story

what did Leef do to bring her such national attention? She got chucked out of her flat. And then wrote on Facebook. Just over a month ago she was told that she needed to leave her Tel Aviv apartment because the building was slated for redevelopment. She started looking for a new home, and was shocked to find how expensive rents had become.
"I called up a friend and said, 'I'm setting up a tent'," she recalls. "He said I should calm down." But she did not calm down - instead she opened a Facebook "event", inviting people to erect tents in central Tel Aviv to protest against high housing prices.

More than 350 people are now living in Tel Aviv's tented city after Daphni Leef invited fellow Israelis to join her protest on Facebook

It quickly gained momentum, and, a month later, there are 350 tents in Tel Aviv's "tent city" where she lives, and more than 500 tents in spin-off demonstrations elsewhere in the country. The campaign is dominating the news. A poll by Haaretz suggests that some 87 per cent of Israelis are behind it. A fortnight ago 30,000 people marched in Tel Aviv in support. via thejc.com

Who is she? Does she support a two state solution? Does she think Islam is a religion of "Piece"? The fact that the media won't tell me frightens me. If Israelis want to build homes, I'm all for it... but there is plenty of concrete in Tel Aviv. Judea and Samaria is where natural growth should occur. What is her take on that? I'm not optimistic.

The Solution to the Israeli Housing Problem... DUH!

These guys get it. They really get it!

A group of 'hilltop youth,' the kids in their teens and 20's who go around setting up 'outposts' as precursors to Jewish towns in Judea and Samaria, have joined in the 'housing crisis' protests, setting up 15 tents on the corner of Allenby Road in central Tel Aviv. Their goal is to let the other protesters know that more building in Judea and Samaria is the answer to the 'housing crisis.'

The hilltop youth, a group of young people who were born in the settlements and who belong to the extreme right [see what I mean about the news reading like an editorial page here? CiJ], appeared on Rothschild Boulevard wearing shirts with slogans such as "Tel Aviv is Jewish" and "Jews, let us be victorious."
The activists planned to set up dozens of additional tents in the coming days.
Meir Butler, one of the hilltop youth leaders, told Haaretz, "We are here to say 'yes' to the social protests, but to also say that there is a solution." The solution, he said, "is to build in Judea and Samaria."
Earlier on Wednesday, approximately 200 right-wing activists marched from Habima Square, shouting, "No to bringing down the government, yes to solving the crisis."
The activists also said they want a solution to the housing crisis and called on the government to lower the price of basic products by 20 percent. Extremist Baruch Marzel also came to Rothschild Boulevard and spoke to some of the protesters.
The organizations that took part in the right-wing march included Im Tirzu, Zo Artzenu, Yisrael Sheli, Bnei Akiva, Ra'ananim, The Committee of South Tel Aviv Neighborhoods, and Yesha council representatives.

Carl: And none of them are being supported by European governments. 

I've been criticized for not serving in the IDF, but I want to go to Israel right now and hang out with these kids in the photo. They make me proud! They are so right! Land for Piece isn't just a bad military position. It also hurts people who need homes. The Jews can't go elsewhere. These youth are my heroes. I wish I were half the man these kids are.

Existing home sales fall to 6-month low

your home lost about 5% of its value from this time last year, which is better than expected: Existing home sales dropped nearly 4% from last year to the lowest rate since last November. Economists polled by Reuters had expected sales to drop 5.9 percent to a 4.80 million-unit pace from the previously reported 5.05 million-unit rate. When a 4% decrese in sales is "better than expected" you know the economy is in real trouble via americanthinker.com image via break.com

The Insult

...did Israeli TV air calls for a Jihad against America, as Palestinian Arab TV did? Did Israel name a square after the murderer of an American photographer, as the Palestinian Authority did? Did an Israeli Anchorman do a skit in blackface during Obama's visit, as a Turkish anchorman did during Obama's visit to Turkey? Are Israeli religious institutions issuing Fatwahs against America, as Al Azhar University, which Obama visited and spoke at, has done? Are Israeli leaders funding terrorism against America, as the Saudi King, before whom Obama bowed, does? via sultanknish.blogspot.com

Martin Indyk says the reason is as follows:
...the Republicans have started making a comeback in Washington, raising the
possibility of using Congress to constrain the president. That was something Netanyahu deployed to considerable advantage once Clinton lost control of the House to the Israelis' close friend Newt Gingrich. He
probably savors the opportunity to do it again.

We are urging the Obama administration to stop making more demands of Israel. Go to www.cufi.org/whitehouse to send your email in seconds. Urge President Obama to end Crisis with Israel via secure2.convio.net

No, none of those incidents were described as insults. Nothing that Muslim countries did to mock, humiliate and murder Americans were even noticed at all. None of them produced furious condemnations from the White House or two hours of Hillary Clinton screeching on the phone at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. So what did Israel do that was so awful, so horrible and terrible? It built houses. Yes, civilian houses. Not army bases or nuclear missiles or walls. Houses. via sultanknish.blogspot.com

Help save http://xrl.us/RamatShlomo

This is a great letter written by Rabbi Stuart Weinblatt (from a Conservative Temple in Potomac, Maryland) to his Congressman, Steny Hoyer (D-Md.).

I am very concerned by the hostile and belligerent tone taken by this Administration towards a close ally over an administrative error made by a low-level bureaucrat, and for which Prime Minister Netanyahu has now apologized no less than four times.
While Israel is trying to downplay the issue and to show its willingness to accept responsibility for an unfortunate error in timing, it appears that President Obama is seeking to use this as a pretext to drive a wedge between us and an important reliable ally of long-standing.
One cannot help but wonder –
Why was Abbas’ refusal to accept the US request and Israeli offer for direct negotiations not an “insult and affront” to the United States and the Vice President?
Why was Assad’s meeting with Ahmadinejad the day after the US announced that we were sending an ambassador to Syria ignored by the State Department and not deemed to be an “insult and affront” to the United States?
Why is Palestinian Authority incitement of rioters in Jerusalem and elsewhere not condemned by this administration and not an “insult and affront” to the United States and the Vice President?
Why is the naming of the main public square in Ramallah by Abbas in honor of Fatah terrorist Dalal Mughrabi, murderer of 38 Israelis - 13 of them little kids not an impediment to the peace process and not an insult and affront to the US and Israel????
Not to mention – why does this administration insist on viewing construction in a vacant piece of land, adjacent to existing housing seen as thwarting the two state solution?

Read the whole thing.

via israelmatzav.blogspot.com