seventy nine people have died and hundreds have been hospitalized across eastern europe after a severe cold and blizzard swept the region the drop in temperature also caused power outages on the blog traffic at the worst hit was ukraine where forty three people most of them homeless died after temperatures hit minus thirty degrees celsius weather forecasters say the deep freeze is here to stay until friday. move to. in a moment is the business but for now the united states is home to the second largest jewish community in the world and many american jews feel increasingly alienated from their spiritual home in israel thanks in no small part to ad campaigns funded by the israeli government as artie's explains. the big commons could be the family featured in an advertisement recently pulled from american t.v. goal israeli married to board an american jewish woman but it was saying is that my

husband shouldn't have married me but the emotional response was just ouch. this is one of three ads sponsored by the israeli government and eight across the united states that evoked more than just an alj from american jews one who is really grandparents ask what festival it is the american granddaughter happily on says christmas instead of the jewish festival of hucker the implied suggestion was that jewish identity has been diluted in america and that angered many jews who live there. cannot get lots of points or two. missiles and so for them. shows a toddler calling daddy daddy to his napping is really expected father who finally wakes up only when he son switches to hebrew american jews felt insulted by the suggestion that israeli jewish identity was more pure than american jewish identity but i think that that's really what bothered me about the ads is that they came

from a place of almost fear mongering you know they were almost kind of trying to scare people who are living here israelis who are living here the ads were designed to encourage its radius living in the united states to come home but critics complained they smacked of arrogance ignorance and cultural disrespect for america instead of giving positive reasons for expects to return to israel they failed to address why many had left in the first place i think a lot of american jews look to going on israel what's developing in the parliament particular in the field is truly alienated from that and they say to themselves this is not the israel that we fell in love with this is not israel that we want to defend american jewry has always been more liberal than israeli society they traditionally voted democrat and often open to a list off the docks practice of judaism then the israeli counterparts. for years a rift has been growing between the two much of it based on the aggressive policies of tel aviv towards gaza and the occupation these really palestinian conflict still shows no signs of compromise and consecutive israeli governments have been unable

or unwilling to reach agreement with the palestinians even many american jews feeling more and more alienated from israel does some of what's going on in the israeli public sphere troubled some north american jews troubled them very very greatly i have no question but that's the case since the late one nine hundred sixty s. israel has built hundreds of thousands of homes here in the west bank more than half a million people now live in settlements tell of announced it was issuing tenders four thousand war homes to be built across the green line evoking anger and condemnation from the international community. as many as a million one in eight israelis live outside the country in the last five years the number of people who choose to leave the holy land has outpaced those wanting to come and live in israel and although the ads are no longer on the air the reasons that they provoke such a backlash in the first place are far from resolved policy or r.t. television. and i don't forget that we've also got the world covered for you on our

website and here are some of the items you what are called the presidential candidate of a lot of says a run off in the upcoming election is possible but believes it could be stabilized the nation's political situation find out how is preparing for the poll of dot com also online for you in person. from america just for making a joke twitter with the story of a couple whose tweets saw them treated like terrorists by u.s. authorities. is.

the official. from the. video. and. the palm of your. home. shortly here on our crosstalk asks this panel of experts what should be done to bring stability to syria that will be after the business update in a recap of the headlines in just a moment. welcome to business r.t. it's all said to be the most hyped i.p.o. in years facebook is expected to file the paperwork for its public listing in new york as soon as today social network will reportedly sell

a ten percent say to raise up to ten billion dollars this will be a record for a technology company but as with other high profile internet firms the limiters and the head of market research at north capital says this one looks overvalued this is a valuation probably based on future cash will. more inclined to talk about the present case will definitely facebook is not delivering this much money right now so. maybe a self-delusion or might might be deliberate exaggeration of of market while you are but facebook is definitely worth much much less than that amount. in a further effort to crack down on corruption president bet it has ratified the o.e.c.d. convention against bribing foreign officials in businesses overseas this is also a key step in russia's access into the paris based organization for economic

cooperation and development according to a study by transparency international russian business men among the world's greatest bribe gears second only to. crisis two point zero and the beginning of the end of the financial world as we know it's this is how saxo bank sees the future in its latest report r.t. takes a look at what's in store for the financial world in twenty two. since the sovereign debt crisis is one of solvency not liquidity and the leaders have failed to address that we can expect to see a systemic collapse and this will involve a liquidity freeze across the board and a sudden drop of at least twenty five percent on europe's i could in markets. the growth outlook for europe is obviously negative so let's move on to a teacher more disappointment there as china is expected to face challenges in rebalancing its economy but better news for you as where economic growth is

expected to do better than anywhere else. interest rates will go off its will come down the public sector will have to face the harsh reality of wage cuts and shrinking overnights. all of the above could be good news for the save haven currencies the us dollar the japanese again the norwegian krohn but a bad year for the euro the swiss franc and the chinese yuan the experts outside the bank believe it's only a matter of time before the perfect financial storm hits and they do offer a one consolation that it may force the authorities into taking the right action for a long term solution. by a circular p.v. markets this hour in the u.s. stocks are up as a.d.p. reports one hundred seventy thousand new jobs were added in january marking the twenty fourth consecutive month of gains. in europe it's all looking also positive with the footsie up one point three percent attacks two percent that's what reports

european central bank could help reduce greece's debt by returning gains on greek government bonds that originally purchased with a discount. this is the closing picture in russia with your tears again around one point four percent of my sex one point seven percent another bullish session in the main move as we see gas promise up one percent net profit roi using over forty one percent the first nine months of. last year predicts a full year profits will be up twenty five percent oil pipeline operates a transnet preferred shares are also doing well the company plans to invest thirteen billion dollars into its infrastructure by twenty twenty. two percent on the reports its russian sales fell twenty one percent in january. second to crude now it's up but it's losing its. just thirty seven cents whereas brant is doing one hundred twelve and a half dollars per barrel. and now let's take

a look at currencies the euro is gaining against the dollar the single currency has strengthened a five percent against the greenback since reaching a seventeen month low on jenufa teens cutting the euro's decline to about four percent since mario draghi took control of the e.c.b. on the first of november the russian ruble is at the end of the session on the mice are losing by five and seventeen versus the two main currencies. plans to create the world's largest stock exchange have been blocked by the european commission and says a proposed nine billion dollar tire between. new york stock exchange would be anti competitive. says the decision is a quote black day for europe. that's all for now the headlines are next on our site .

if you are just joining us a very warm welcome to you this is a lot from last time few headlines a u.n. resolution on syria stops short of calling for outside intervention but reflects the wishes of the u.s. . who want to see president assad moved from power russia for the meantime insists there should be no foreign interference. the u.k. high court considers that the fate. of sexual

assault the wiki leaks founder insists the case is politically motivated and a response to his website. and israel's. jews based in the us suggesting that jewish identity is being diluted by the country they live in but many are already feeling alienated by israel's policies of expansion and treatment. by my colleague daughters here in half an hour's time but for now. syria's future and whether any foreign intervention could actually help to break the stalemate or simply make things worse you watching. hello and welcome to cross talk i'm peter lavelle syria on the brink as violence escalates in this in battle country the calls for strong sanctions and even

a military intervention grow in intensity what is at stake the protection of innocence or regime change that transforms geopolitics of the region. to cross talk of ends unfolding in syria we have marwa dowdy and princeton she is a departmental lecturer in politics and international ations of the middle east at the university of oxford in washington we have david park he is a senior fellow at the washington institute for near east policy and in montreal we cross the maximillian forte he's a professor of anthropology at concordia university in montreal all right folks this is crosstalk that means you can jump in anytime you want and i very much encourage it but ok first i'm going to go to david david the the white house says that it is inevitable that assad will fall so by saying it does that make it inevitable now i don't think thing it makes it inevitable i think what makes

it inevitable the situation. where the syrian people most of them are rising up against the regime. i think we've seen in other countries in the region and elsewhere in the world when almost the entire population of the country rises up against the government sooner or later that government will give a do we know that the the majority of the people are rising up in syria and we know that. yes we do we know that we know. but just looking at the situation the country. of thousands of people all over syria risking their lives to demonstrate week after week month after month against the regime we also know from research the. people really think. there's

a media blackout i think it's still pretty hard to say ma if i can go to you in princeton has the west decided to support a side in this conflict in syria that is rapidly looking like a civil war. well clearly there is an uprising which has continued unabated since about a year and now we're heading towards the first anniversary of the start of the uprisings. there has been a brutal repression on the part of the regime and so far about six thousand civilian casualties killed in this repression so clearly there's a situation that here they are peaceful protesters who have been crushed by the regime security imperative and that has drawn attention internationally so there's been a sigh taken in the sense that there are human rights violations and i would say it's true that the uprisings have taken you know have continued and a large part of the population is supporting it you also have a part of the population which still doesn't know which side to take because they are afraid of what would come next and this is the part of the population which

still needs to be comforted that there will be a peaceful transition to democracy ok and max if i can go to you do you think the syrians still have a chance to negotiate an end to this conflict before there is this push for another humanitarian intervention and we all know what happened in libya and what is happening in libya today. now. well i think that's extremely don't fall as a matter of fact because just recently russia offered to host negotiations between all of the different parties and as we know the syrian national council you know one of the main opposition blocs has essentially rejected that offer possibly with some foreign encouragement behind them because one of the stipulations that they made one of the preconditions for the talks was that assad should resign so they wanted an old come of a big o'shea sions the outcome of

a process as a preliminary condition and so that possibility of negotiations is very unlikely and from my point of view it's starting to resemble a bit what was happening in libya where the opposition consistently refused to engage in any sort of peaceful negotiations. so i think that's highly unlikely peter david yes david go if i can go to you i mean we've brought up libya here do you see that you see this turning into a libya like scenario where you know we go down the slippery slope of intervention when they say of what no fly zone means one thing then the reality on the ground in the bombing is another thing. no i don't think this resembles the libyan scenario partly of course because unlike the security council. given the threat of

a russian and maybe also the chinese veto will approve any kind of military intervention in syria but i think if one is looking for a peaceful resolution it's very easy to imagine how that could happen and that would simply be. his ruling clique found asylum in moscow that would resolve the situation very quickly and very said he you think that's going to happen yes i do actually sooner or later i think that would be of great benefit to the syrian people and i think that russia would be able to preserve its interests in syria and in the wider region more effectively by negotiating that kind of outcome marlen by the opposition if i go tomorrow actually i said regime is willing to negotiate with

russia even if they're not willing to negotiate with us said ok tomorrow if i go to you why do you think that the the international community to quote the whole international community nato and its allies she did determine who should leave who should be in power and who should leave power i mean this is turning into a pattern i think i would. right the libyan example is not a good case study for syria i mean there were there were calls by the transitional council for military intervention and that led to the nato campaign which by the way has created civil war today in libya there are still the spoils of war which are being fought for between the different rebel groups in the case of syria this is not a scenario which is favored by the majority of the syrian population there have been calls for a no fly zone scattered calls but i would say the majority of the population rejects any foreign military intervention with the fear that this would lead to the fragmentation of the country and in fact the start of civil war now we see that the conflict has started to become militarized because the civilian population is

defending itself it's being besieged but this is a dangerous path and i would say if there is any transition towards a successful democratization there would have to be a choice that is made by the syrian people themselves and in that case they would have to claim in fact ownership of this revolution and if there is a piece one way out which means that the assad family relinquishes power peacefully and finds a way out why not that would be in fact the ideal solution but that would mean still that there would not be delaying tactics you know talking about negotiations while repression goes on because the repression still goes on and at the same time trying to maintain itself in power that would have to be a real way out of the conflict but that would have to be decided by the representatives of the syrian people the syrian national council but also all of the opposition movements their local coordination committees and other groups on the ground which are the ones in fact suffering on a daily basis from the repression ok. the west has shown is that aside here it's

when people called rebels or protesters that are actually and we have desertions in the army i mean why should the outside world be getting involved in what is a civil war i don't care what people want to call it i mean you have part of the population that is getting better armed through outside help. yes and on the i agree peter very much. that the west has taken a side is that while it's been stated very clearly isn't stated by barack obama himself who who said that assad must leave you know that's a statement of preference for regime change. so there is an ambiguous saudi arabia has back to the syrian national council other members of the arab league such as libya have also a recognize the syrian national council as the legitimate representative of the

syrian people and so there are outside interests that have taken aside the thing to understand is we live in a period of war. humanitarianism as has become the new ideology of imperialist intervention the united nations itself is serving as a kind of human rights the iter with a very selective attention and concern for particular countries and not for other countries and what distinguishes the selective ity in the concern shown is these are regimes that have been targeted by the united states that's where human rights really counts the united states wants to cast itself as being in a position as being the liberate or of arabs as being the force i will liberate arabs from themselves because they are fundamentally incapable of ruling themselves and so what we have years a kind of rehash of colonialists doctrine david what do you think about that.

i think it's a very. speedy. search word to me actually quote ridiculous why is everything you it's why i said why is it ridiculous it's ridiculous because it's ridiculous because it has no relationship to reality or to the fur coats whether in egypt or tunisia or anywhere or majority of syrians were protesting in the streets ok yes that's correct that's not a cliche oh if i go you mention before we would sleep because nothing to do with my wife and go to you before we go to the break here do the majority of the airports are actually majority of syrians recognize that the syrian national council is a legitimate body representing themselves how do we know that why do foreign governments recognize it but we don't know if the syrian people do well the syrian

national council has gathered sort of a big spectrum of the different opposition movements you have islamist you have secular as you have intellectuals you have kurdish groups so it tried to bring sort of a platform. sort of consensus platform but it is. you know divided and they don't have a united position this year national council is seen as the leading opposition force but you have other of physician groups such as the national coordination committees and the two groups differ in their way they would see a way out of the crisis the syrian national council refuses dialogue with the regime because it says it has just been here already going to a short break and after that short break we'll continue our discussion on syrian state party.

old means of protection can be used. in global supremacy. between two thousand and five and two thousand and nine the u.s. has spent fifteen billion dollars in the price to pay for the entire program that we are dealing with right now here in two thousand and eleven is another hundred fifty billion dollars that's larger than many country's entire military budgets twenty oftens becomes the best form of france. a soulless substance. can attack like a well trained. villages in ruins. for thailand where time stands still.

all becomes a scene of nothing. the mysterious sounds of russia. are cheap subdued. and. welcome back across a computer a little to remind you we're talking about events unfolding in syria. ok david i forgot to you d.c. you know you've been on the program before and you know i'm a cynic so i'm going to give a cynical comment and a quote i am question this has nothing to do with the syrian people this has nothing to do with their rights it has nothing to do with the killing of innocent people eccentric cetera this is all about geo political change in the region you

take syria down and it's a boon for israel maybe but certainly for other countries where hezbollah is weakened in the next target the great prize of the mall is iran that's what it's all about isn't it. yeah well that's. a point of view again has no connection with reality what what everyone looking for you explain yourself why do you say that you dismiss a theory when you don't know or you want to or rising up. as i started to say before you interrupted everyone can see that the syrian people are rising up and risking their lives day after day week after week month after month thousands of people all over the country tens of thousands of people so you think it should be a military intervention should there be a military intervention in scorning called stop this you know i'm not calling for i

don't think there should be and i don't think there needs to be i think the. force of the people in syria will the regime sooner rather than later ok we did it. for so many and you want to say it will have to die before that happens ok marwan what do you think about this is nothing to do is jeffersonian democracy when we were promised that in libya my wife i go to you in princeton i mean how much of this is that a geo political play because this is something the saudis are just drooling over they're just so pleased about this and a lot of people in media don't like to talk about the shia sunni sunni sectarian difference here which is playing a very big role in what's going on in syria right now. peter let me just to get back to what was discussed previously before the interruption i mean there are two dimensions to the to the situation in syria now there's on the one hand a very legitimate powerful movement of civilians.