Pete Seeger and pals attend NYC protest action (AP)

NEW YORK – Folk music legend Pete Seeger joined in the Occupy Wall Street protest Friday night, replacing his banjo with two canes as he marched with throngs of people in New York City's tony Upper West Side past banks and shiny department stores.

The 92-year-old Seeger, accompanied by musician-grandson Tao Rodriguez Seeger, composer David Amram, and bluesman Guy Davis, shouted out a verse as the crowd of about 1,000 people sang and chanted.

They marched peacefully over more than 30 blocks from Symphony Space, where the Seegers and other musicians performed, to Columbus Circle. Police watched from the sidelines.

At the circle, Seeger and friends walked to the chant of "We are the 99 percent" and "We are unstoppable, another world is possible." Seeger stopped to bang a metal statue of an elephant with his cane — to cheers from the crowd.

At the center of the circle, Seeger and Amram were joined by `60s folk singer Arlo Guthrie in a round of "We Shall Overcome," a protest anthem made popular by Seeger.

After more singing, Seeger asked for a mic check to tell the crowd: "The words are simple: I could be happy spending my days on the river that flows both way-ay-ays."

During the march, the younger Seeger, in troubadour fashion like his grandfather, walked among the protesters playing songs. Amra took up a flute and others enlivened the night protest with the sounds of the accordion, banjos, and guitars.

At the front of the throng, marchers held American flags and a large blue flag that said: "Revolution Generation ... Debt is Slavery." Along the way, the crowd sang protest songs made popular or written by Seeger, Woody Guthrie, and others of the protest era.

Occupy Wall Street began a month ago in lower Manhattan among a few young people, and has grown to thousands around the country and the world. An Associated Press-GfK poll says more than one-third of the country supports the Wall Street protesters, and even more — 58 percent — say they are furious about America's politics.

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Leon Panetta in Israel: Will his urgent messages bring action? (The Christian Science Monitor)

Washington – Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, traveling at a time of what some analysts say are profound and lasting changes in the US-Israel relationship, is carrying a couple of high-priority messages to America’s closest ally in the Middle East.

On his first visit to Israel as Pentagon chief, Secretary Panetta’s first order of business appeared to be to air US concerns about Israel’s growing isolation from its neighbors – some of whom are also critical partners of the US.

In meetings with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Secretary Panetta is sharing his concern that Israel is endangering its own security with the recent deterioration in its relations with neighbors like Egypt and Turkey.

RELATED: Top 5 issues on the table for Israeli-Palestinian talks

Panetta is carrying another message from the White House to his Israeli interlocutors: Find a way to resume peace talks with the Palestinians.

a€?Panetta is carrying water for the White House with this message that the Israelis need to re-engage in the peace process,a€

The US desire to see peace talks under way once again has more to do with US relations with the region than with any strong prospects for the Israelis and Palestinians to actually make progress towards a peace accord, Mr. Phillips says.

“Every White House wants something going because it’s easier for the US to operate in the Arab and Muslim worlds when there’s a peace process,” he says. “This administration is no different in wanting the Israelis and Palestinians to get up on the two-seat bicycle, even if everybody knows there’s no chance of a comprehensive settlement any time soon.”

Panetta is also scheduled to meet in the West Bank with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minster Salam Fayyad.

Panetta’s visit to Israel, part of a swing through the Middle East before he attends a NATO ministerial meeting in Brussels, comes just six months after former Defense Secretary Robert Gates made a similar trip. Mr. Gates was the first US defense secretary to visit Palestinian leaders in the West Bank.

But Gates was also reported (by Bloomberg’s Jeff Goldberg) to have told a summer national security session at the White House shortly before he stepped down that Israel is an “ungrateful ally” that has given the US little or nothing – particularly concerning the peace process – in return for America’s rock solid security guarantees.

Gates also reportedly said that Mr. Netanyahu was endangering Israel’s security by failing to address his country’s deteriorating regional relationships.

In that sense Panetta’s warnings of Israel’s growing “isolation” may have a worrisome echo for the Israeli officials he meets.

Some analysts, like Heritage’s Phillips, are of the view that US-Israel military-to-military relations are stronger than ever, and that any flat notes should be heard as reflecting diplomatic differences between the two countries.

Noting that Panetta publicly made his “isolation” comment before arriving in Israel, Phillips says it could be the US defense secretary wanted to “put that particular US concern out there” before his military meetings. “Maybe that’s a message that’s really better for the politicians,” he says.

But others say there is no getting around the fact that the US-Israel strategic partnership is changing a€“ and that recent turbulence in the relationship reflects not only a changing region but a€“ to some degree and on some issues a€“ diverging national interests.

In a new study analyzing the US-Israel partnership entitled “Crossroads,” Haim Malka of Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies concludes that “rising tensions in the bilateral relationship” reflect one key reality: “The US and Israel have changed and continue to change, but the two countries’ relationship has not kept pace.”

For one thing, the US must treat Israel less as a dependent, Mr. Malka says. And perhaps with something of an echo of Robert Gates, Malka concludes that the US and Israel must develop a relationship “that contains clearer commitments of what each side will do for the other – with an implicit understanding that there are limits to those commitments.”

RELATED: Top 5 issues on the table for Israeli-Palestinian talks

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U.S. demands action from Europe's strongest at G7 (Reuters)

MARSEILLE, France (Reuters) – The United States pressed Europe's strongest economies on Friday to give "unequivocal" financial support to weaker euro zone states to overcome a debt crisis that threatens the world economy.

"It is completely within the capacity of the stronger members of the euro area to absorb these costs," U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said as G7 finance chiefs gathered in Marseille to discuss how to revive a stalling recovery.

"Those costs would be much, much greater for them and their economies if they sit here and do nothing, and they recognize that," Geithner told Bloomberg Television in comments that appeared aimed primarily at EU economic powerhouse Germany.

With markets looking to the Group of Seven major industrial economies for some sign of a policy shift to help faltering growth, a G7 source said the meeting might after all issue a communique, which G7 chair France had said was not planned.

Ministers and central bankers were under pressure to calm the biggest confidence crisis in financial markets since the 2007-8 global credit crunch.

But a shock announcement that the top German official at the European Central Bank is leaving early in disagreement with the bank's policy of buying euro zone government bonds to support the likes of Italy and Spain laid bare deep rifts over how to manage the debt crisis.

The ECB confirmed that chief economist Juergen Stark would retire nearly three years before his term is due to expire. His decision means Bank of Italy governor Mario Draghi will start his term at the ECB helm in November with a mountain to climb to restore its credibility in Germany, Europe's biggest economy.

France has called for a coordinated response from the Group of Seven industrialized nations after mounting anxiety over Europe's debt crisis and the fragility of its banks caused a big fall in world stock markets in recent weeks.

Differences between the economic problems facing the euro zone, Britain and the United States -- which unveiled a $447 billion jobs package on Thursday -- are complicating the task though, meaning one-size-fits-all solutions will not work.

IMF chief Christine Lagarde said in London before boarding a flight for Marseille that policymakers in advanced economies should use all available tools to boost growth and called for bold action to weather a "dangerous new phase" of recovery.

She also cautioned against too much fiscal consolidation in a climate of sputtering growth.

But a G7 source told Reuters a unanimous agreement at the Marseille talks on coordinated monetary easing was unlikely.

A source in Brussels has said the G7 would likely agree to keep monetary policy accommodative, slow fiscal consolidation in states where that is possible, and implement structural reforms.

Fears the global economy may be in its most difficult period since the collapse of investment bank Lehman Brothers have added significance to Friday's talks but there has been little evidence of the unity of purpose shown in 2008 and 2009.

U.S. President Barack Obama's new package of tax cuts and spending could lift U.S. growth by one to three percentage points in 2012 and add more than a million jobs.

But in debt-ridden Europe, there is little scope for fiscal stimulus, and where there is some wiggle-room -- in Germany and Britain -- there is no political appetite for it.

In an indication of the conflicting positions on policy, Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty told Reuters TV decisive moves were needed to restore market confidence and said slowing fiscal consolidation too much would be foolish.

"I hope we would all agree we have to stay the course, that we have to go through the pain of fiscal consolidation. It's not easy, it creates stresses in some countries, but it's necessary, we have to get through this rough patch," Flaherty said.

G7 finance ministers and central bankers trickled into the sunlit Mediterranean port city of Marseille around lunchtime and talks were due to start at 4:00 p.m. (1400 GMT).

A working dinner will be followed by briefings from around 9:15 p.m. local time (1915 GMT) by the French, German, Canadian and Japanese delegations and European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet. The United States plans no briefing.

ASIA AS CONCERNED AS U.S.

With Asian economies deeply worried about the West's debt crisis and slow growth, Japan said it will voice its concern on the euro zone debt crisis and seek support for its right to unilateral action over safe-haven buying pushing up the yen.

Bank of Japan Governor Masaaki Shirakawa told reporters in Marseille he hoped the talks would share frank views on the crisis and said it was vital that G7 finance chiefs came up with a "firm stance" to stabilize the world economy.

"There are various factors behind the world economy's uncertainty but Europe's debt problem is one major factor. It is important for Europe to tackle its debt problems for its own sake but it would also indirectly bring positive effects on Japan's economy," he said.

Finance Minister Jun Azumi said Japan would ask the G7 for its understanding on its intentions to counter yen rises.

Lagarde said policymakers must act now, "and boldly," giving her blessing to more quantitative easing by central banks and saying the challenge was to find a pace of adjustment that was neither too fast nor too slow.

She said countries facing market pressures must push ahead with urgent fiscal consolidation, while there was scope for slower action in countries not at the mercy of market forces.

"If growth continues to lose momentum, balance sheet problems will worsen, fiscal sustainability will be threatened, and the scope for policies to salvage the recovery will disappear," she said.

Decisions by the European and British central banks this week to keep interest rates unchanged accentuated the gloom in Europe but neither indicated that a cut was imminent, while Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke gave no hint of new stimulus to boost the economy in a keenly awaited speech.

"Despite speculation about new coordinated forex intervention, a standard final statement remains the most likely outcome," Unicredit said in a research note.

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development says growth across the G7 could slow to an anemic 0.2 percent in the last quarter of 2011. Its chief economist Pier Carlo Padoan urged the G7 to send a clear signal it is ready to take action if growth slows further.

(Additional reporting by Daniel Flynn and Claire Watson in Marseille, John Irish in Paris, Keith Weir in London, David Lawder in Washington and Leika Kihara in Tokyo; Writing by Catherine Bremer, editing by Mike Peacock)

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