Egypt, Israel, and
Money
Robert Gover (born November 2, 1929)
grew up in an endowed orphanage (Girard
College in Philadelphia), attended the
University of Pittsburgh on athletic
scholarship (swimming the butterfly),
received a degree in economics, worked as a
journalist, became a bestselling novelist by
age 30, lived most of his life in California
where he began his study of astrology, and
now resides in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.
His latest novel is Two Brothers. He
describes it as an “economic novel.” One
brother becomes a millionaire, the other a
skid row bum. A third character was an
economics professor till he studied
astrology—he was subsequently confined
in an insane asylum. Robert’s first novel,
One Hundred Dollar Misunderstanding, is a
satire on racism and remains a cult classic.
He has published 10 novels and 2 works of
nonfiction, including Time and Money: the
Economy and the Planets. He can be
reached at gocycles@aol.com.
By
Robert Gover, USA
I srael’s natal planets are under
challenging hits during this period of
upheaval in Egypt and the rest of the
Arab world. A T square is formed by
transiting Pluto and Venus square Israel’s
Uranus and Jupiter in late Pisces and early
Aries, which in turn are square and
opposite Israel’s Venus and Uranus. T
Mercury is opposing Israel’s Saturn-Pluto
conjunction, and Chiron and Neptune are
opposing Israel’s Mars. Israel’s Neptune is
opposed by T Jupiter with Uranus soon to
join Jupiter.
As indicated by these aspects, Israelis are
on tenterhooks awaiting the outcome of
the Egyptian revolution. With the
Mubarak regime running things in Egypt,
Israelis felt confident that their border was
safe, despite the fury in Gaza and the
underground network of tunnels
connecting Gaza to Egypt. The network of
tunnels is credited with saving the people
of Gaza from the worst of the Israeli
Government embargo. The Mubarak
regime cooperated with the Israeli
crackdown on the Palestinian people but
that is likely to change soon, as the people
of Egypt are sympathetic to Palestinians.
Germany’s Der Spiegel quoted from an
Israeli newspaper to highlight the pressure
in Israel:
“In an op-ed piece in Yedioth Ahronoth,
Israel's largest daily newspaper, Dov
Weissglas, the chief advisor to former Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon, does not criticize the
Mubarak regime for having its
security forces fire at the protesters, but rather the Americans for their disloyalty. ‘The slap in the
face Mubarak has had to suffer in this time of crisis reminds us, once again, of the less attractive face
of the United States, which unhesitatingly turns its back on friendly regents in times of crisis,’
Weissglas wrote.”

Certainly the USA’s relationship with both Egypt and Israel will be changed, especially if a
new Egyptian regime reflects the will of the Egyptian people. US aid circulated money
through the Mubarak regime back to US defense contractors and food corporations, with the
people of Egypt stuck with the bill. (What’s called aid is given in the form of loans, not
grants. These loans are repaid by taxing the people.)

So here’s the dilemma: The only democracy in the Middle East is fearful of democracy in
neighboring nations. During Mubarak’s reign, the largest Arab nation was no threat to
Israel. While Israelis favor democracy for themselves, they are fearful of what democracy
might bring from the “Arab street.” The antagonism toward Israel by Arab populations was
held in check till the revolts in Tunisia and then the overthrow of Mubarak in Egypt. A
popular saying is, “As goes Egypt, so goes the Arab world.”

How will the revolution in Egypt alter that nation’s relationship with the USA? If a new
military dictator emerges to replace the Mubarak regime, that relationship will continue
much as it has been for the past 50 years. If a truly democratic regime emerges, that
relationship is likely to change. What can the astrology involved tell us about this?

It will probably take a couple of years for a new government in Egypt to get settled and
become fully functional. By the Winter Solstice 2012, the USA’s natal Sun will be opposition
T Pluto in Sagittarius and square T Uranus in Aries, forming a grand cross pattern with
natal Saturn in Libra. The USA’s natal Uranus on the Ascendant will be caught between T
Jupiter conjunct and Mercury-Sun in Sagittarius opposed. This indicates that America will be
tremendously challenged economically by this time, and thus also militarily.

Ironically, both Egypt and Israel have been supplied with military hardware by the USA.
Although Israel also possesses nuclear bombs, it’s hard to imagine the Israelis using these in
such a crowded neighborhood as the Middle East, especially when Iran may also have nukes.
Yet the essence of the enmity between Israelis and Arabs is symbolized by Neptune’s
opposition to Israel’s Mars, which forms a T square with Israel’s Chiron opposite Israel’s Sun
and North Node.

The US Government is under pressure from corporations and big banks that profit from
foreign aid to the Middle East, and other corporations that profit from making war. (Search
“corporate profits from wars.”) In the 1930s under a similar affliction from the outermost
planets, but a different international situation, the big banks loosened their credit
constrictions and invested whole hog in the Second World War, ending the Great
Depression—but at the cost of millions of lives and great destruction of cities and
landscapes.

Will this aspect of history repeat? Let’s hope not. Economically stressed people are far more
likely to go to war, and America’s domestic economy continues to suffer under credit
constrictions, causing a widening gap between the people and Wall Street financiers. Here
is an item that was freely circulating on the internet in February 2011 describing the situation
in small-town USA:

“It is a slow day in the small North Dakota town of Pumphandle and streets are deserted. Times are
tough, everybody is in debt, and everybody is living on credit. A tourist visiting the area drives
through town, stops at the motel, and lays a $100 bill on the desk saying he wants to inspect the rooms
upstairs to pick one for the night. As soon as he walks upstairs, the motel owner grabs the bill and runs
next door to pay his debt to the butcher. The butcher takes the $100 and runs down the street to retire
his debt to the pig farmer. The pig farmer takes the $100 and heads off to pay his bill to his supplier,
the Co-op. The guy at the Co-op takes the $100 and runs to pay his debt to the local prostitute, who has
also been facing hard times and has had to offer her services on credit. The hooker rushes to the hotel
and pays off her room bill with the hotel owner. The motel proprietor then places the $100 back on the
counter so the traveler will not suspect anything. At that moment the traveler comes down the stairs,
states that the rooms are not satisfactory, picks up the $100 bill and leaves. No one produced anything.
No one earned anything... However, the whole town is now out of debt and now looks to the future
with a lot more optimism.”

There is nothing wrong with the economy of Pumphandle that money won’t fix in a jiffy.
The trouble is not a lack of willing workers and material, it’s a lack of money. This lack is
based on a monetary system that dates back to medieval times, and constricts credit to the
Have-nots during economic down cycles.

Although the people of Pumphandle are short cash, the big international bankers of Wall
Street have trillions of dollars. Where did they get these trillions? Well, for one thing, the
usual international retail chains were doing business in Pumphandle—Walmart, Home
Depot, McDonalds, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Taco Bell, etc.—and the profits from these
stores wound up legally owned by the Wall Street bankers, who were too smart to reinvest
in Pumphandle when there were much bigger profits to be made by investing elsewhere.

In the USA, money is created and distributed by the Federal Reserve. The Fed is called an
“independent central bank,” meaning it is privately owned, not part of the US Federal
Government. China, India and other hitherto “third world” countries now have state-owned
central banks, which mean their banking profits are reinvested where needed in their
domestic economies. If the USA’s Fed were government-owned and operated, money would
flow to the Pumphandles of the nation. The problem with the USA’s Fed (and also the
European Union’s privately owned central bank) is that bankers are duty-bound to care
more for profits than for people. Bankers are legally obligated to take money made from
thousands of Pumphandles and invest it where profits are maximized. Today, it’s
derivatives markets that pay the biggest profits. Derivatives do not produce goods and
services. What they produce is spectacular profits.
Money has two primary functions: As medium of exchange facilitating commerce, and as a
storehouse of value. If you have a million dollars, chances are your million is “stored” in
investments through Wall Street brokers (who nowadays are international and not confined
to Wall Street). This invested money is your savings, your “nest egg,” and you certainly
want it invested in endeavors that will increase it. You don’t want to put your million
dollars under your mattress where even 2% inflation per year will reduce its value, its
purchasing power. So you are happy to get the results of your Wall Street broker’s services—
investing your money where it increases the most. That is what shortchanges the
Pumphandles of the world economy—you can’t maximize profits by sending money back to
where it came from.

Before the US Congress created the Federal Reserve in 1913, small towns and farms had the
money they needed to build the wealthiest economy on planet Earth. Small town banks
made credit money readily available to the people of the Pumphandles, who got busy
producing tangible things of real wealth.

This monetary system freed the new immigrants who populated the USA from a wealthy
aristocracy who controlled the money issued by the privately-owned central banks in
Europe. The American Revelatory War was fought to free American colonists from the
burden of debt created by the Bank of England lending money to the British Government,
which in turn stuck its citizens with the debt for this borrowed money, at ever-compounding
interest. American colonists objected and cried, “No taxation without representation.” This led
to economic democracy. Not all had the vote in early America, but all but most partook of
the expansive spread of money.

This experiment in economic democracy ended with the creation of the Fed when the USA
reverted to the kind of economy it had rebelled against. We are now reaping the long-range
consequences of this reversion, which can be read in the horoscope of the Fed’s creation. The
biwheel chart on the next page has the USA’s natal chart on the inner wheel and the Fed’s
“birth” on the outer wheel.

The Fed’s Sun-Pluto opposition afflicts the USA’s natal Mars, Venus, Jupiter and Sun, square
the USA’s Saturn in Libra. The Fed’s Saturn opposite Venus and Mercury afflicts the
USA’s innovative Uranus. The Fed’s Neptune-Jupiter opposition afflicts the USA’s
Mercury-Pluto opposition. After nearly a hundred years of the Fed’s control of money, it’s
becoming clear that the American people were tricked and swindled by the perpetrators of
this monetary system—as were people in other areas of the world whose economies were
eventually controlled by this system, leading to such popular uprisings as Egypt’s.

If popular revolts in Arab countries are to succeed, the newly established governments—if
they are truly democratic—will have to break with this monetary system. For it is “foreign
aid” (loans by the Fed’s spawn, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund) that has
sucked the prosperity out of such countries as Egypt the same way it laid waste to
Pumphandle. The elites who have benefited from this system now constitute the backbone
of international high finance.
As the old saying goes, “He who has the money, controls the government.” If the people of Egypt
establish the same kind of democracy the people of Pumphandle now have, they will get to
vote for candidates approved by the super-wealth, and Fed-fattened financiers will continue
to suck up their money. That will not solve the core problem.

Most dictators of the 20th Century were enriched by this medieval monetary system renewed
in America by the Fed. International bankers need somebody in Egypt to handle the foreign
aid loans. Mubarak and his friends did a fine job for the banks and were rewarded with
billions of dollars. The Mubarak regime did not create this system, they were part of the
system’s process. True democracy means the system gets changed. Otherwise, only the
actors change, and the same old drama continues.

The rising tide of democracy has become a powerful force aligned against this medieval
monetary system run mainly by the privatized central banks of the USA and Europe. The
system’s existence depends on the ignorance of the people it plunders. Corporate control of
information in the USA keeps Americans in the dark. Clean elections will not be enough if
political candidates are obligated to the banks and big corporations.

Can a new regime in Egypt change how this debt-creating money system works? Yes, they
can, if they establish a state-owned and operated central bank. If they take the bank profits
out of war with Israel, it will greatly reduce the likelihood of such a war. If war is avoided,
this would be as beneficial for the people of Israel as it would be for their Arab neighbors
and the rest of humanity. People who are busy building prosperity don’t want to quit work
and make war.

Looking ahead, what will the stellar influences be on Israel by the 2012 Winter Solstice?

A T square is formed from T Mercury opposite Israel’s Mercury simultaneously conjunct T

Jupiter, with those planets square T Neptune and Chiron in Pisces. And a grand cross is
formed by T Pluto and Sun opposite Israel’s Venus in Cancer, with those planets square
Israel’s Neptune opposite T Uranus. With the Uranus-Pluto square afflicting Israel’s money
planets Jupiter and Venus, we can expect Israel’s prosperity to be stressed.

The modern Republic of Egypt was established June 18, 1953. On February 12, 2011 when the
uprising forced President Hosni Mubarak to step down, the Sun and Mars opposed the
Republic of Egypt’s natal Pluto, and T Pluto opposed natal Mars. Saturn had returned to its
natal position in Libra, conjunct natal Saturn and Neptune.

Using the 2012 Winter Solstice again—not only for end-of-the-world fears associated with
that date but for astrological reasons—and the date of Mubarak’s overthrow: The Egyptian
revolt’s Venus and Pluto square Jupiter and Uranus is hit by the tightening Uranus-Pluto
square. A second phase of this revolution appears likely.

Maybe the most indicative chart combination is a biwheel with Israel on the inner wheel
and the Egyptian revolution on the outer wheel, which shows a nasty grand cross: The
Egyptian Revolution’s Sun, Mars and Mercury opposite Israel’s Mars, Saturn and Pluto in
Leo, square Israel’s Sun in Taurus opposite Chiron in Scorpio. Can another American
President (Barak Obama this time) bring the parties together and help them through this
volatile time, averting another Arab-Israeli war? Or will economic and social upheaval in
the USA distract Americans as they cope with their own challenges?

The new element in this ancient enmity between Israelis and Arabs is the Internet,
especially social networks like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Governments and their
corporate allies have restricted access now and then, but social networkers find ways around
such restrictions. So whatever the Egyptian Revolution brings to the rest of the Arab world
and to Israel will be communicated to the whole world instantaneously. The resolution of
the Arab-Israeli conflict is now the whole world’s business, with people from all over the
planet injecting their opinions, hopes and fears. Add Wikileaks to the mix, and the days
when national leaders can act in secret are fast fading from our new reality.