paragraph_text: The US Federal Reserve belatedly implemented policies similar to the current quantitative easing during the Great Depression of the 1930s. Specifically, banks' excess reserves exceeded 6 percent in 1940, whereas they vanished during the entire postwar period until 2008. Despite this fact, many commentators called the scope of the Federal Reserve quantitative easing program after the 2008 crisis ``unprecedented ''.

paragraph_text: Middle East Policy is an academic peer-reviewed journal on the Middle East region in the field of foreign policy founded in 1982, published quarterly by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the Middle East Policy Council. Its current editor is Anne Joyce, Vice President of MEPC.

paragraph_text: Although Turkey and Israel did not establish full diplomatic relations until 1991, Turkey has cooperated with the State since its recognition of Israel in 1949. Turkey's ties to the other Muslim-majority nations in the region have at times resulted in pressure from Arab and Muslim states to temper its relationship with Israel. Relations between Turkey and Israel took a downturn after the 2008–09 Gaza War and Israel's raid of the Gaza flotilla. IHH, which organized the flotilla, is a Turkish charity that has been challenged on ties to Hamas and Al-Qaeda. Relations between Israel and Greece have improved since 1995 due to the decline of Israeli-Turkish relations. The two countries have a defense cooperation agreement and in 2010, the Israeli Air Force hosted Greece’s Hellenic Air Force in a joint exercise at the Uvda base. Israel is the second largest importer of Greek products in the Middle East. The joint Cyprus-Israel oil and gas explorations centered on the Leviathan gas field are an important factor for Greece, given its strong links with Cyprus. Cooperation in the world's longest sub-sea electric power cable, the EuroAsia Interconnector, has strengthened relations between Cyprus and Israel.

paragraph_text: The Bank of Sierra Leone is the central bank of Sierra Leone. It issues the country's currency, known as the Leone. The bank formulates and implements monetary policy, including foreign exchange.

paragraph_text: The Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP) is a non-profit organization for research and advice on Middle Eastern policy. It regards its target countries as the Middle East but adopts the convention of calling them the Near East to be in conformance with the practices of the State Department. Its views are independent. The WINEP bundles the countries of Northwest Africa together under "North Africa." Details can be found in Policy Focus #65.

paragraph_text: Since regaining independence, Estonia has pursued a foreign policy of close co-operation with its Western European partners. The two most important policy objectives in this regard have been accession into NATO and the European Union, achieved in March and May 2004 respectively. Estonia's international realignment toward the West has been accompanied by a general deterioration in relations with Russia, most recently demonstrated by the protest triggered by the controversial relocation of the Bronze Soldier World War II memorial in Tallinn.

paragraph_text: Greece's foreign policy is conducted through the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and its head, the Minister for Foreign Affairs. The current minister is Nikos Kotzias. According to the official website, the main aims of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs are to represent Greece before other states and international organizations; safeguarding the interests of the Greek state and of its citizens abroad; the promotion of Greek culture; the fostering of closer relations with the Greek diaspora; and the promotion of international cooperation. Additionally, due to its political and geographical proximity to Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Africa, Greece is a country of significant geostrategic importance and is considered to be a middle power and has developed a regional policy to help promote peace and stability in the Balkans, the Mediterranean, and the Middle East.

paragraph_text: Israel is considered the most advanced country in Southwest Asia and the Middle East in economic and industrial development. Israel's quality university education and the establishment of a highly motivated and educated populace is largely responsible for spurring the country's high technology boom and rapid economic development. In 2010, it joined the OECD. The country is ranked 3rd in the region and 38th worldwide on the World Bank's Ease of Doing Business Index as well as in the World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness Report. It has the second-largest number of startup companies in the world (after the United States) and the largest number of NASDAQ-listed companies outside North America.

paragraph_text: In 1961, the first M79 grenade launchers were delivered to the US Army. Owing to its ease of use, reliability, and firepower, the M79 became popular among American soldiers, who dubbed it "the platoon leader's artillery". Some soldiers would cut down the stock and barrel to make the M79 even more portable.

paragraph_text: The crisis had a major impact on international relations and created a rift within NATO. Some European nations and Japan sought to disassociate themselves from United States foreign policy in the Middle East to avoid being targeted by the boycott. Arab oil producers linked any future policy changes to peace between the belligerents. To address this, the Nixon Administration began multilateral negotiations with the combatants. They arranged for Israel to pull back from the Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights. By January 18, 1974, US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger had negotiated an Israeli troop withdrawal from parts of the Sinai Peninsula. The promise of a negotiated settlement between Israel and Syria was enough to convince Arab oil producers to lift the embargo in March 1974.

paragraph_text: Beginning in March 2009, the Bank of England had purchased around £165 billion in assets as of September 2009 and around £175 billion in assets by the end of October 2009. At its meeting in November 2009, the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voted to increase total asset purchases to £200 billion. Most of the assets purchased have been UK government securities (gilts); the Bank has also purchased smaller quantities of high - quality private - sector assets. In December 2010, MPC member Adam Posen called for a £50 billion expansion of the Bank's quantitative easing programme, while his colleague Andrew Sentance has called for an increase in interest rates due to inflation being above the target rate of 2%. In October 2011, the Bank of England announced that it would undertake another round of QE, creating an additional £75 billion. In February 2012 it announced an additional £50 billion. In July 2012 it announced another £50 billion, bringing the total amount to £375 billion. The Bank has said that it will not buy more than 70% of any issue of government debt. This means that at least 30% of any issue of government debt will have to be purchased and held by institutions other than the Bank of England. In 2012 the Bank estimated that quantitative easing had benefited households differentially according to the assets they hold; richer households have more assets.

paragraph_text: Hamas (Arabic: حماس ‎ ‎ Ḥamās, an acronym of حركة المقاومة الاسلامية Ḥarakat al - Muqāwamah al - ʾIslāmiyyah Islamic Resistance Movement) is a Palestinian Sunni - Islamic fundamentalist organization. It has a social service wing, Dawah, and a military wing, the Izz ad - Din al - Qassam Brigades. It has been the de facto governing authority of the Gaza Strip since its takeover of that area in 2007. During this period it fought several wars with Israel. It is regarded, either in whole or in part, as a terrorist organization by several countries and international organizations, most notably by Israel, the United States and the European Union.

paragraph_text: The Peres Center for Peace, located in Jaffa, Israel, is an independent non-profit, non-governmental, and non-political organization founded in 1996 by Nobel Peace Laureate and former President of Israel Shimon Peres. Its aim is to further Peres' vision of people in the Middle East working together to build peace through socio-economic cooperation and development and people-to-people interaction.

paragraph_text: Monetary policy concerns the actions of a central bank or other regulatory authorities that determine the size and rate of growth of the money supply. For example, in the United States, the Federal Reserve is in charge of monetary policy, and implements it primarily by performing operations that influence short - term interest rates.

paragraph_text: Government involvement in the British economy is primarily exercised by Her Majesty's Treasury, headed by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. Since 1979 management of the economy has followed a broadly laissez - faire approach. The Bank of England is the UK's central bank and its Monetary Policy Committee is responsible for setting interest rates, quantitative easing, and forward guidance.

paragraph_text: The Jerusalem AIDS Project (JAIP) is an international HIV/AIDS-focused NGO, founded in 1986 and based in Jerusalem, Israel. It is a national (Israel), regional (Middle East) and international leader in HIV/AIDS prevention efforts in young people, including school pupils, university students and men and women in uniform, commended by the United Nations in 2006 for its approach.

paragraph_text: My New Partner is a 1984 French comedy film directed by Claude Zidi, starring Philippe Noiret and Thierry Lhermitte. Noiret plays a streetwise Paris policeman who takes kickbacks from the minor criminals on his beat to allow them to continue. At the start of the film, his partner is busted for corruption and he narrowly escapes. He is assigned an idealistic new partner fresh from police academy. He sets out to corrupt his new partner and, after a slow start, succeeds spectacularly.

paragraph_text: Digest of Middle East Studies is a biannual peer-reviewed academic journal published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the Policy Studies Organization. The journal was established in 1992 with Mohammed M. Aman (University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee) as editor-in-chief. The journal focuses on Middle Eastern studies, particularly regarding religion and politics.

paragraph_text: The Library of Congress (LoC) is an institution established by Congress to provide a research library for the government of the United States and serve as a national library. It is under the supervision of the United States Congress Joint Committee on the Library and the Librarian of Congress. The Near East is a separate topic and subdivision of the African and Middle Eastern division. The Middle East contains a Hebraic section consisting of only Israel for a country, but including eleven modern and ancient languages relating to Judaism, such as Yiddish, a European pidgin language. The Near East is otherwise nearly identical to the Middle East, except that it extends partly into Central Asia and the Caucasus, regions that the State Department considers to be in Asia.

paragraph_text: The United States and the Soviet Union were the first two countries to recognize the State of Israel, having declared recognition roughly simultaneously. The United States regards Israel as its "most reliable partner in the Middle East," based on "common democratic values, religious affinities, and security interests". Their bilateral relations are multidimensional and the United States is the principal proponent of the Arab-Israeli peace process. The United States and Israeli views differ on some issues, such as the Golan Heights, Jerusalem, and settlements. The United States has provided $68 billion in military assistance and $32 billion in grants to Israel since 1967, under the Foreign Assistance Act (period beginning 1962), more than any other country for that period until 2003.

Question: When was quantitative easing started by the organization setting monetary policy for the country considered its most reliable partner in the Middle East by Israel?
Answer: during the Great Depression of the 1930s