Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13

Twelve EU Countries Likely to Back Palestine's UN Bid
Nov 9th, 2012
Daily NewsEUobserver - Andrew Reitman
Categories: Today's Headlines;Revived Roman Empire;The Nation Of Israel

BRUSSELS - Palestine can count on about 12 Yes votes by EU countries when it seeks to upgrade its UN status, in a move expected later this month.

EU foreign affairs spokeswoman Maja Kocijancic told EUobserver on Thursday (8 November) that foreign ministers will debate the subject at a regular meeting in Brussels on 19 November.

She added that: "The EU maintains that negotiations remain the best way forward to resolve the Middle East peace process."

A senior EU diplomat told this website the same day the EU remains divided on the question, however. He noted that member states' votes "will probably follow the same pattern as with Unesco," referring to a decision by the UN's Paris-based cultural wing to admit Palestine as a member last year.

At the time, 11 countries - Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Finland, France, Greece, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, Slovenia and Spain - backed the Unesco bid.

Another 11 - Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Romania and the UK - abstained. The other five - the Czech Republic, Germany, Lithuania, the Netherlands and Sweden - voted No.

Some of the positions might have shifted over the past 12 months.

Cyprus and Israel have in the meantime developed closer ties over a joint project to explore natural gas reserves in the Mediterranean Sea.

But Israel lost an ally in Brussels when Dutch foreign minister Uri Rosenthal left his post in a new coalition government this week.

Rosenthal's successor, centre-left politician Frans Timmermans, has in the past criticised the Dutch government's pro-Israeli stance. Last September, he tabled a motion in the Dutch parliament saying The Hague should back Palestine's bid to get a Vatican-type observer status in the UN.

The Palestinian side on Thursday circulated a draft UN resolution seeking "Observer State status ... on the basis of the pre-1967 borders."

The draft text echoes the EU's common position on the conflict by also calling for "the resumption and acceleration of negotiations" and "two states, an independent, sovereign, democratic, contiguous and viable state of Palestine, living side by side in peace and security with Israel."

It needs a simple majority in the UN to pass, with a vote expected on 15 November or on 29 November.

Palestine's chief negotiator on the conflict, Saeb Erakat, in October described the move as "a sword on [the] neck" of Israel, because if it goes through, Palestine will have the right to file cases against Israel at the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

For his part, Israel's foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman will on Friday in Vienna meet with Israel's ambassadors to European countries to co-ordinate a blocking campaign.

He gave a flavour of what Israeli diplomats will be telling EU capitals in coming days at a recent meeting with EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton in Israel.

"He threatened to withhold Palestine's tax revenues, to cut off their electricity and water supplies and to flood the occupied territories with new settlements if they go ahead with the UN vote," an EU source told this website.

In an another foretaste of things to come, Israel this week unveiled the construction of almost 1,300 new settler homes on occupied land.

The US is also lobbying EU countries not to back the UN bid.

The state department sent a confidential memo to member states' UN ambassadors in September saying that the observer status bid "would have significant negative consequences, for the peace process itself, for the UN system, as well for our ability to maintain significant financial support for the Palestinian Authority."

It noted: "We believe your government understands what is at stake here, and - like us - wants to avoid a collision."

It added that EU governments should tell other UN members and their Palestinian contacts that its UN bid "would be extremely counter-productive.

Obama Admin Says the Sky’s the Limit on Increasing Our National Debt
Nov 9th, 2012
Daily NewsNTEB
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said on Wednesday that if the $16.394 trillion current legal limit on the federal government’s debt must be raised in the next few months by another $2.4 trillion, “We’ll raise it.”

That would set the debt limit at $18.794 trillion

During a Capitol Hill press conference on Wednesday, CNSNews.com asked: “Senator Reid, the Treasury Department said last week that we will hit the debt ceiling again near the end of the year. Are you prepared—will you support—”

“I think the debt ceiling will come after the first of the year,” Reid said. “But please everyone accept this: They tried it before—they, the Republicans.”

“They tried it before – ‘We’re going to shut down the government, and we’re not going to raise the debt ceiling,’” he said. “If they want to go through that again, fine.”

“But we’re not going to be held subject to something that was done as a matter of fact in all previous administrations,” Reid said.

CNSNews.com then asked, “But will you support raising it by another $2.4 trillion?” “If it has to be raised, we’ll raise it,” he said.

On Aug. 2, 2011, Congress and President Barack Obama reached a deal to raise the debt ceiling by $2.4 trillion. Now, after only 15 months, almost all of that additional borrowing authority has been exhausted, according to the U.S. Treasury Department.

CNSNews.com reported that Treasury quietly announced a week ago that it expects the federal government to hit its legal debt limit before the end of this year.

“Treasury continues to expect the debt limit to be reached near the end of 2012,” said the 10th paragraph of the “Quarterly Refunding Statement” put out by Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Financial Markets Matthew Rutherford.

“However, Treasury has the authority to take certain extraordinary measures to give Congress more time to act to ensure we are able to meet the legal obligations of the United States of America,” the statement said. source- CNS News

Let the Headlines Speak
Nov 9th, 2012
Daily NewsFrom the Internet
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Obama Won, So I Fired 22 Employees
“I explained to them a month ago that if Obama gets in office that the regulations for Obamacare are gonna hurt our business, and I’m gonna have to make provisions to make sure I have enough money to cover the payroll taxes, the additional health care I’m gonna have to do, and I explained that to them and I said you do what you feel like in your heart you need to do, but I’m just letting you know as a warning this is things I have to think of as a business owner.

EU's Ashton 'deeply regrets' new settlement building
"Settlements are illegal under international law and threaten to make a two-state solution impossible," it said. Israel's building in the West Bank and east Jerusalem is one of the most contentious issues of stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and led to direct negotiations being put on hold in September 2010.

Assad: Global chaos from Western invasion
"The price of this invasion, if it happened, is going to be more than the whole world can afford," Assad told Russian channel Russia Today, "because if you have a problem in Syria, and we are the last stronghold of secularism and stability in the region ... it will have a domino effect that will affect the world, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and you know the implication on the rest of the world."

Could millions of GM insects be released into British crop fields without safety checks?
The British company Oxitec is working on genetically modified insects that are designed to kill off pests that feed on crops such as cabbages, broccoli, tomatoes and fruit. The firm insists the technology is a green alternative to the use of chemical sprays, which have their own dangers for human health and the countryside.

Greg Mannarino: Here Comes the Equities Crash As Obama Re-Elected- DOW 4,000 Possible
With the looming fiscal cliff, massive tax increasing set for 2013, the Fed preparing to take QE supernova, Mannarino states a major market sell-off and financial collapse is coming in which many people will LOSE EVERYTHING! Mannarino believes that the coming crash will be so intense that the DOW could potentially hit 4,000!

Syria invasion would have 'global consequences', Assad warns
"I am not a puppet. I was not made by the West to go to the West or to any other country," Mr Assad said in English in an interview with Russian state-backed RT television. "I am Syrian, I was made in Syria, I have to live in Syria and die in Syria," he said, according to transcripts posted on RT's website.

7 Navy SEALS, including one involved in the killing of Osama bin Laden, punished for divulging secrets
Seven members of a unit that killed Osama bin Laden got career-ending reprimands Thursday for spilling secrets to a video game developer, a Navy official said.

Over 100 UFOs seen along China border
The Army troops deployed along the China border from Ladakh in Jammu and Kashmir and Arunachal Pradesh in northeast have reported more than 100 sightings of "Unidentified Flying Objects" (UFOs) in the last three months.

Christian Pastors Issue Dire Warnings After Obama Win: God ‘Will Judge Sin’ & ‘It Won’t Be Pretty’
Evangelical preachers who came out strongly for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney...have voiced their angst in the wake of President Barack Obama’s re-election victory... “Unless we’re willing to repent for our sins, we will stand in [God's] judgment,” he proclaimed. “I want to warn America: God is coming around. He will judge sin, and it won’t be pretty.”

How Many Businesses Have Announced Closings or Layoffs Since Obama Won A Second Term?
Do elections have consequences? If you have been paying attention to the financial markets, you might think so. Wall Street has had two horrible days since President Obama won a second term. However, stock prices are not the only thing taking a hit. It appears that the job market is also suffering. In the last 48 hours,...major corporations have announced layoffs in America...

Sudan's Bashir: Israel is enemy no. 1
A tired but healthy-looking Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir appeared on television Thursday after a minor operation, calling Israel "enemy number one" in a return to his typical fiery rhetoric. Bashir, 68, spoke standing at a lectern for about 15 minutes in what government-owned Blue Nile TV said was a broadcast recorded earlier in the day at Sudan's embassy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Mexican pot plans go up in a puff of smoke
A top aide to Mexican President-elect Enrique Pena Nieto says votes to legalize the recreational use of marijuana in Colorado and Washington state will force the Mexican government to rethink its efforts at trying to halt marijuana smuggling across the southwestern border. ...“These important modifications change somewhat the rules of the game in the relationship with the United States,” Mr. Videgaray said.

Iranian jets 'fired on US drone'
Iranian fighter jets shot at an unmanned US drone during a routine surveillance mission over the Gulf, Pentagon officials have said. The defence department said the drone was not damaged in the incident, which it said took place in international air space on 1 November. Pentagon spokesman George Little said the president had been informed.

Ya'alon: We've sent numerous warning messages to Syria
Israel has sent a number of warning messages to Syria and is ready to defend itself, Strategic Affairs Minister Moshe Ya'alon said Friday, a day after three errant Syrian mortar shells landed in Israeli territory. Last week, three Syrian tanks entered the demilitarized zone on the Golan Heights. "The other side has received no small [number of] messages recently," Ya'alon wrote on his Twitter account, saying that Syria has reacted accordingly.

Israel Turns to Russia’s Gazprom on Gas Project
Nov 9th, 2012
Daily NewsThe World Tribune
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

TEL AVIV — Israel has been examining the prospect of selecting
Russia to participate in a major offshore natural gas project.

Israel’s Leviathan gas field.

Industry sources said Israel’s Delek Group has been negotiating with
Russia’s Gazprom to buy a stake in the Leviathan gas field in the
Mediterranean Sea. They said Delek wants to recruit Gazprom but has been opposed by a leading partner, the U.S. firm Nobel Energy.

“Although the Israelis, led by Delek Group’s Yitzhak Tshuva, are
enthusiastic about Gazprom because of its geopolitical power, Nobel Energy prefers a Western partner, even at terms that are not as good as the terms offered by the Russian giant,” the Israeli business daily Globes said.

The sources said the United States has been monitoring the negotiations between Delek and Gazprom. They said Leviathan has sought a strategic partner to expand the offshore project, estimated at up to $15 billion.

Israel - Preparing for the Unexpected
Nov 9th, 2012
Daily NewsJpost
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel;Warning

The IDF is intensively drilling the speedy deployment of its forces from the West Bank and Jordan Valley to potential war fronts, as the region continues to be shaken by deep instability.

In every direction Israeli military planners look, new threats are emerging in varying degrees. On the Lebanese border, Hezbollah is constructing sophisticated subterranean rocket-launching sites and command and control centers. Ground forces will be required to take out these underground facilities in any future confrontation.

In the Sinai Peninsula and Syria, al-Qaida-inspired groups are mushrooming. In Gaza, Hamas together with Islamic Jihad and a host of smaller Palestinian jihadi organizations have built a heavily armed Islamist base which is on a long-term collision course with Israel.

Beyond the growing guerrilla-terrorist challenge, the IDF may yet have to quickly enter Syria to neutralize the threat of loose and mobile chemical weapons. And, of course, any strike on Iran’s nuclear weapons program will almost certainly set off a regional conflict.

These developments are what led Deputy Chief of Staff Maj.-Gen. Yair Naveh to warn in mid-October that for the first time in years, Israel must be ready for unexpected security developments on multiple fronts.

“We will have to be flexible and responsible in following the changes in the entire area,” Naveh told 375 new army officers during a ceremony held at Mitzpe Ramon.

These changing factors are also behind comments by the army’s head of Technology and Logistics Branch, Maj.-Gen. Kobi Barak, who said that the chances of a “narrow or wide” armed conflict involving the IDF have grown recently. Against this background, the IDF has stepped up drills involving mobilization of armored vehicles, ground troops, and all their logistical and communications support units from the center of the country to the north or south.

Few know the true size of Israel’s ground forces, but it is safe to say that the IDF is one of the largest modern armies around.

The goal now for IDF commanders is to ensure that the army’s devastating firepower and ability to seize territory quickly through overwhelming force can be directed to any front within hours.

To that end, the past weeks and months have seen a marked increase in IDF exercises aimed at the mobilization of military forces from the IDF’s Central Command to the south and north.

In recent weeks, for example, an IDF tank battalion in the Jordan Valley surprised its soldiers with an exercise aimed at getting the tanks to a war front within a day. Conscripted soldiers and reserve troops took part in the exercise – the first time this has happened.

Supporting infantry units were also called in to the rehearsal, as they would be crucial in any speedy land maneuver.

The “enemy” in this exercise was played by IDF soldiers pretending to be guerrillas armed with anti-tank missiles; just the sort of asymmetrical conflict that may develop unexpectedly.

The live-fire drill, held at a large base in the Jordan Valley, featured Israel’s Merkava 4 tank, which is one of the most technologically advanced and deadly tools available to the ground forces.

The Merkava 4’s capabilities have been bolstered further by a new anti-rocket shield installed in the tanks. Called Wind Jacket, the system provides 360- degree protection to the tank and intercepts incoming anti-tank missiles (of the type held by Hezbollah) in midair, thereby allowing the tank to proceed on the battlefield unhindered.

The commander of Battalion 9, which held the drill, said his force would be one of the first responders to a developing conflict.

A few days before that, the IDF’s largest communications battalion held a war drill in which it tested how long it would take it to get to a battle front.

The drill was based on the understanding that achieving battlefield victory is not only about getting to the front and moving into enemy territory; ground forces must practice working with one another and coordinating their activities under fire. Hence, the communications battalion tested out a new command and control system called Digital Ground Army 600.

This system allows field commanders to track (in real time) all of the ground units on an interactive screen, communicate with the units, and issue instructions.

In September, artillery units were airlifted without warning from their regular patrols in the West Bank to the Golan Heights to practice their response time to a sudden Syrian conflict. The troops had to take up their firing positions and open fire at targets as quickly as possible.

Furthermore, field commanders have increased their exposure to intelligence on Israel’s enemies.

Recently, ground forces commanders traveled to an intelligence agency’s headquarters in Israel and received an in-depth briefing on Hezbollah, Hamas and other threats. The aim is to have the intelligence filter down to the lowest ranks, giving the whole of the ground forces access to an updated intelligence picture on who will be waiting for them in the next round.

Many of these preparations are the results of lessons learned during the 2006 Second Lebanon War. The IDF’s senior echelons have vowed that the indecisive outcome of that conflict will not repeat itself.

Iran Can No Longer be Kept from Attaining Nuclear Weapons
Nov 9th, 2012
Daily Newsdebkafile
Categories: Commentary;Warning

President Barack Obama, after the American voter returned him to the White House Tuesday, November 6, will no doubt try to honor his election pledge to prevent Iran’s possession of nuclear weapons.
But at the most triumphal moment of his career, the US president faces Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei from a position of strategic inferiority. His Iranian antagonist used every moment gained from the months of presidential campaigning in America, to jump Iran’s nuclear program forward and place its key facilities in “immune zones.”
Just last week, Iran completed the transfer of the advanced centrifuges producing 20-percent enriched uranium to the fortified underground Fordo site near Qom. This plant is no longer vulnerable to aerial bombardment. It can only be penetrated by special operations forces on the ground smashing their way in after first overpowering the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) division on permanent guard at Fordo.
In the past three months, Israel has twice displayed this combat capability in unacknowledged covert operations
On Aug. 17, unidentified commando forces blew up the special high-tension lines feeding the Fordo facility from the town of Qom. The IRGC guards missed the furtive movements of the attackers who were nowhere to be seen by the time the damage was spotted

Israel displays its special ops skills

Then, on October 24, official Sudanese spokesmen reported four Israeli bomber jets had wiped out the Yarmouk weapons and missile complex manufacturing Iranian missiles and other weapons near Khartoum. No scraps of Israeli or other Western bombs were discovered when the factory debris was sifted through by Iranian investigators. What they did find was bits of Israeli-made LF114 IDF M151 OREV anti-tank missiles.
These missiles, which have unique anti-tank and armor-piercing features, are in frequent use by Israeli special operations fighters. They carry the specialized TAWs on their backs when they are allotted to the divisions to which they are assigned. The Orlev is very heavy and so the commandos carrying them must be in peak physical shape.
Clearly, then, the raid on the Yarmouk Complex was the work of a commando unit with fighter jet air cover – a format addressed to the notice of Tehran as the model of a potential assault on Fordo.
In Paris on Nov. 1, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu commented after talks with French President Francois Hollande, that Iran now has the means to for launching a nuclear device.
This was the first reference by any Israeli or Western politician to Iran’s ballistic missiles as sufficiently developed to deliver nuclear warheads.

Unimpressed, Iran’s nuclear march continues

But none of Israel’s covert performances or rhetoric slowed down Iran’s nuclear progress in the slightest, any more than the tightened sanctions clamped down by the US and Europe. Iran’s race for nuclear armament continued nonstop.
So Obama starts his second term in the White House after the fact: He lost the chance of stopping Iran possessing an atomic bomb in his first term. He may now have to settle for a deal on whether Iran may stock nuclear arms and limitations on quantities. It will also have to be acceptable to Russia and China.
Shortly before he faced the American voter, Obama signaled his readiness for a deal with Khamenei through an unattributed White House briefing to a number of US media outlets stating that the United States had agreed to one-on-one talks with Iran on their nuclear controversy.
This leak was quickly denied by the White House in Washington and Khamenei’s bureau in Tehran.
Obama’s re-election has brought this option to the fore and paved the path to direct diplomacy.

Khamenei will squeeze Obama before he agrees to talks

But, now Iran has the whip hand in negotiations having advanced well on the way to gathering all the components necessary for building nuclear bombs and acquiring the means, missiles, for delivering nuclear warheads.
The US president’s original plan to persuade Khamenei to accept possession of the technology for making a bomb without actually building one, is by now a non-starter, say DEBKA-Net-Weekly's intelligence sources. Washington will have to lower its expectations from these talks; a bid to stop a nuclear Iran in its tracks will have to make way for a discussion on the extent of Tehran’s projected nuclear stockpile.
In any event, the ayatollah will never agree to sitting down with the Americans before sanctions are lifted.
The re-elected US president may try to draw Tehran into a nuclear accommodation as part of a comprehensive US-Iranian accord on the sharing-out of spheres of influence in the Middle East. This might also fit into an arrangement for ending the bloodshed in Syria for which Obama would want to enlist Vladimir Putin’s aid, although Moscow has not so far signaled its willingness to come aboard.
But the Iranian ruler is not expected by our Iranian sources to respond to any fruitful diplomatic initiatives before assembling 4-6 finished nuclear devices in an arsenal.
Neither has Tehran much incentive for aiding a settlement of the Syrian civil conflict before reaching this goal – especially when the Syrian bloodbath weighs heavily on America’s Middle East policy objectives.
To keep Washington on edge, Khamenei may even pull out the threat of a nuclear test.
And indeed, within hours of Obama’s victory, Tehran came out with a flat expression of bad will:
The head of the Iranian judiciary Sadeq Larijani condemned the “crimes” of US sanctions against the Iranian people. He said relations with American “cannot be possible overnight” and the US president should not expect rapid new negotiations with Tehran. He went on to say, “Americans should not think they can hold our nation to ransom by coming to the negotiating table.”

Devastating! Obamacare Forcing Immediate Layoffs of Thousands of Workers
Nov 9th, 2012
Daily NewsNTEB
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

57 million Americans voted for their own pink slip

Do elections have consequences? If you have been paying attention to the financial markets, you might think so. Wall Street has had two horrible days since President Obama won a second term.

However, stock prices are not the only thing taking a hit. It appears that the job market is also suffering. In the last 48 hours, nineteen major corporations have announced layoffs in America.

At Least 11,000 Syrian Refugees Flee in One Day
Nov 9th, 2012
Daily Newsdebkafile
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Most poured into Turkey with children and dozens of wounded; others to Jordan and Lebanon. The 9,000 clambering over the barbed wire fence into Turkey were escaping fighting in Harem in Syria’s northern Idlib and expected air raids on the northeastern town of Ras al-Ayn, which rebels seized from the Syrian army.
Earlier, a Turkish state-run agency reported a group of Syrian soldiers sought asylum, including two generals and 11 colonels.
UN officials warn that the unrelenting increases in violence and suffering in Syria would raise the numbers in need of humanitarian aid from 2.5 million to 4 million early next year. In recent weeks Kurds and Palestinians are being drawn into the fighting.