Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13

Mob Assault on Gaza - Israel Fence Ends in a Palestinian Death
Dec 1st, 2012
Daily Newsdebkafile
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

Israeli soldiers facing a Palestinian mob rushing the Gaza border fence Saturday warned them to withdraw. When they kept coming, the soldiers strarted shooting at their legs. The Palestinians report that a man aged 21 was killed and six others wounded.

Let the Headlines Speak
Dec 1st, 2012
Daily NewsFrom the Internet
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

White House opposed new Iran sanctions
The White House announced its opposition to a new round of Iran sanctions that the Senate unanimously approved Friday, in the latest instance of Congress pushing for more aggressive punitive measures on Iran than the administration deems prudent. ...The new legislative language would blacklist Iran's energy, port, shipping, and shipbuilding sectors, while also placing new restrictions on Iran's ability to get insurance for all these industries.

Hillary Clinton warns Israel on settler homes
The US has criticised Israel's decision to authorise the construction of 3,000 more housing units in occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that "these activities set back the cause of a negotiated peace". The White House had earlier described the proposal as "counter-productive".

North Korea to launch long-range rocket in December
North Korea is to launch a long-range rocket between 10 and 22 December, its official news agency says. The KCNA agency said the aim was to launch a satellite. Previous - unsuccessful - launches have been criticised as breaches of a UN ban on North Korean ballistic missile tests. The announcement is likely to increase tensions with North Korea's neighbours, with South Korea expressing concern over Pyongyang's announcement.

Islamists rally for Morsi as Egypt rift widens
Tens of thousands of Islamists demonstrated in Cairo on Saturday in support of President Mohamed Morsi, who is racing through a constitution to try to defuse opposition fury over his newly expanded powers. "The people want the implementation of God's law," chanted at least 50,000 flag-waving demonstrators, many of them bussed in from the countryside to pack streets near Cairo University.

Merkel reaffirms German support for Israel after UNGA vote
German Chancellor Angela Merkel reassured Israel of her country's support on Saturday, two days after Berlin disappointed the Jewish state by abstaining in a UN vote on the Palestinians' status. Germany, which will host Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu...next week, abstained in Thursday's vote in the UN General Assembly which provided de facto recognition of a sovereign Palestinian state.

Why Obama is pushing for stimulus in 'fiscal cliff' deal
President Obama's opening offer in 'fiscal cliff' talks includes $255 billion in stimulus spending – tax cuts, incentives, and more. It could be a bargaining ploy or a bid to offset rising taxes on the rich.

Israel moves to build 3,000 new settlement homes
Israel responded swiftly Friday to U.N. recognition of a Palestinian state, revealing it will build 3,000 more homes for Jews on Israeli-occupied lands that the world body overwhelmingly said belong to the Palestinians. The plans also include future construction in a strategic area of the West Bank where critics have long warned that Jewish settlements would kill hopes for a viable Palestinian state.

Al Qaeda leader reportedly arrested in Yemen
Yemen's Interior Ministry says police have arrested an Al Qaeda leader who is one of the country's most wanted fugitives. The ministry, in a statement late Friday, said Suleiman Hassan Mohammed Murshed Awad was arrested in Zinjibar, the capital of southern Abyan province, once an Al Qaeda hotbed. It did not say when he was arrested.

North Korea plans new long-range rocket launch
North Korea announced Saturday that it would attempt to launch a long-range rocket in mid-December, a defiant move just eight months after a failed April bid was widely condemned as a violation of a U.N. ban against developing its nuclear and missile programs.

Iran planning indigenous S-300 missile system: Defense Minister
Iran's Defense Minister Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi says the Islamic Republic is progressing well in the process of manufacturing an air defense system similar to the Russian S-300.

UN Calls for Moscow Conference on Middle East
The UN General Assembly has adopted a resolution calling for the Moscow Conference on the Middle East that has repeatedly been postponed to be held as soon as possible, a RIA Novosti correspondent reported on Friday.

Median Household Income Plummets to 43-Year Low
Average American households are becoming poorer and losing stability. That’s the alarming finding of a top economist who says the median net worth of households across the United States has plummeted to a 43-year low. Edward Wolff, a respected economics professor at New York University, set the nation’s median net worth is now at $57,000. It hasn’t been so low since 1969.

Deadly, destructive 2012 hurricane season ends
The 2012 Atlantic hurricane season that spawned the destruction of Sandy and Isaac has come to an end as one for the record books. There were 19 named storms in what meteorologists consider an above-average year that tied as being the third most-active season since 1851. The season runs from June 1st to November 30th, although tropical storms can and do sometimes develop outside those dates.

New flagpoles in Iran spark rumors of clandestine satellite jamming technology
Flying the national flag usually signifies a display of pride or patriotism. But in Iran today, it may represent something much more sinister. Sources and blog postings from inside Iran say that what seem to be simple flagpoles popping up all over Tehran and other large Iranian cities are actually clandestine electronic antennas, which use high-frequency waves to jam communications and block ordinary citizens from Internet, TV and radio signals. Some Iranians think the electronic emissions also may be hazardous to humans’ health.

FM Lieberman: the Palestinians Refuse to Sign Peace
Dec 1st, 2012
Daily Newsdebkafile
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel;Peace Process

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman: "We didn't see any peace from Gaza after we withdrew, [and] no peace from Lebanon." Addressing the Saban Forum in Washington Friday, he said: "With settlements, we try not to provoke, but we have the right to define our capital, and settlement construction is part of our security. Settlements aren't an obstacle to peace, the opposite is true," he said. “We are ready to sacrifice for peace but not commit suicide,” said Lieberman. Standing by his objection to Mahmoud Abbas as a peace partner, he said, “We need a comprehensive solution with the Palestinians, but it's up to the Palestinians… I saw Olmert's proposal in Annapolis, and Abbas refused to sign it.”

As Fatah Fades, UN Recognition of Palestine May Eventually Benefit Hamas
Dec 1st, 2012
Daily Newsdebkafile
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Thursday night, Nov. 29, the UN General Assembly grants Palestine non-member observer status within 1967 borders by a majority vote. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has tried dismissing this upgrade as meaningless – awarding its initiator Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) nothing more than a small town sheriff’s badge. But the fact remains that this status and those borders are on the books, no matter which Palestinian government is in power, Abbas’s Fatah which rules the West Bank from Ramallah or the extremist Hamas in the Gaza Strip. And Israel now has a new headache, especially if the Palestinian entity seeks membership of the International War Crimes Court in The Hague.
For now, the Palestinians are treading carefully. They say they won’t apply as yet. However, by having Yasser Arafat’s remains exhumed in a grand military ceremony, for samples to be tested for poison in Paris and Moscow, they have set a road sign pointing to The Hague.
The Palestinians have long suspected Israel of poisoning the food given Arafat after he was confined in his Ramallah headquarters under siege in 2002. A special team of IDF officers examined every item of food and drink provided him.

Even if no poison is found and there is no proof that Israel was instrumental in his death, the case has an odd and macabre bearing on the UN vote of Nov. 29 in two ways:

1. The Palestinians have an incurable tendency to overlay their diplomacy with acts of terror. Arafat himself kept up a ferocious terrorist campaign against Israel while engaged in one round after another of “peace negotiations.” And just last week, Hamas engineered a bus bombing in Tel Aviv, recalling the bad old days of Arafat’s reign and injuring more than 30 people. The blast provided the background noise for Hamas’s acceptance in Cairo on Nov. 21 of a ceasefire, which halted their missile offensive and Israel’s eight-day operation in Gaza.

Abbas a spent force

2. Compared with the aggressive Hamas, PA Chairman Abbas, at 77, is increasingly regarded as a spent force in the Palestinian and Arab arenas. His Fatah party and the Palestinian Authority are worn out by infighting and becoming increasingly irrelevant – except as a ball for batting among Israeli politicians. Abbas is using the Arafat case and his UN initiative to show he still has muscle – if not legitimacy.
Elected president seven years ago, his term ran out, according to the Palestinian constitution, in 2009.
The illegitimate Ramallah regime
The same goes for the Palestinian Legislative Council, which was elected in 2006 in a vote that gave Hamas a majority. Since then, Abu Mazen has suspended the Council’s work. There is frequent talk in Ramallah of new elections but nothing comes of it, partly for fear of giving the rival Hamas another chance to gobble up the West Bank as well as the Gaza Strip.
So the Palestinian president and prime minister holding court in the seat of government in Ramallah lack legal authority for ruling the West Bank or representing the Palestinian people to the outside world. They are only kept in power by seven battalions of special forces financed by the US. Their corrupt administration runs day to day affairs only with the help of donations from Western and Arab governments and Israeli economic aid. Without regular Israeli cash infusions in recent months, Abu Mazen’s regime would not have covered the payroll for the members of his bloated administration and security services.

All Abbas and his Fatah have to show for the many billions which world powers showered on them over the years to make the dream of a sustainable Palestinian state come true is a failed Palestinian entity ruled by a corrupt bureaucracy, with no standing in the Arab arena.
The UN farce

It is to this entity that the UN General Assembly, which itself is losing relevance as a player in international affairs, has voted to extended a measure of legitimacy on the world stage.
The Palestinian UN Ambassador may now get a bigger office at UN Center in New York with a view of the East River. But in Ramallah, after the well-orchestrated celebrations in honor of Abu Mazen are over, nothing will change. The toxicology tests on Arafat’s remains are awaited there in the hope of some drama. But the real hub of Palestinian affairs has moved from Ramallah to Gaza City.
Pilgrimages to Gaza

On December 8, treading in the footsteps of the Emir of Qatar and Arab foreign ministers, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan pays his first visit to Gaza.
He will be accompanied by the deposed Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal. So far, he has not persuaded Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniyeh to welcome Mahmoud Abbas as a token of Palestinian unity.
The disunity is such that when Abbas’ foreign minister Riyad Malki tried to enter the Gaza Strip with a party of Arab foreign ministers in the course of ceasefire talks, he was stopped at the Rafah crossing by Hamas security guards who denied his standing.
None of the Arab ministers interceded on his behalf. They just left him at the gate.
Erdogan will therefore not make Abbas’s company a precondition for his own Gaza visit. For him its importance lies in his being the second Muslim visitor to Gaza after the ruler of Qatar’s arrival on Oct. 23.

Most of all, it signifies his recognition of Hamas at the expense of Fatah in Ramallah as part of the burgeoning Sunni Muslim Middle East axis, which is strongly though silently endorsed by the US and Israel.

No Arab leader or foreign minister has been seen in Ramallah for some time. However, in his declining years, Abbas has left UN endorsement of Palestinian nonmember observer status ready on the shelf to be collected at some future date by Hamas – should those extremists qualify for a place in the new US-backed Sunni Middle East grouping in formation by Egypt, Turkey and Qatar.
At some future point, the dormant Middle East Quartet may wake up and revive its stipulation for Hamas to give up terrorism and its ambition to eradicate Israel – the key points of its “resistance” posture – in order to buy international acceptance.

Another 3,000 Israeli Homes for Jerusalem and West Bank
Dec 1st, 2012
Daily Newsdebkafile
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

The Netanyahu government has approved 3,000 new apartments for Jerusalem and the West Bank, its first response to the Palestinian application for UN nonmember status which was approved Thursday. Planning will also be expedited for new Israeli housing in the “E1” area linking Jerusalem and Maaleh Adummim, where it will counter the Palestinian construction apace on the northeastern edge of Jerusalem. More projects are in the Israeli pipeline.

Alarm in Tehran and Moscow Over Bushehr Nuclear Reactor’s Near - Explosion in Mid-october
Dec 1st, 2012
Daily Newsdebkafile
Categories: Warning;Contemporary Issues

Iran’s nuclear reactor at Bushehr was shut down in mid-October for fear of an explosion. Saturday Dec. 1, an authoritative Russian nuclear industry source revealed the cause of its malfunction: “Indicators showed that some small external parts were… in the [Bushehr] reactor vessel….” They were identified as “bolts beneath the fuel cells.”

debkafile’s Moscow sources report this information came from a source in the office of Sergei Kiriyenko, head of the Russian nuclear energy authority Rosatom, which supervised the construction of Iran’s first atomic reactor at Bushehr.

According to our intelligence sources, Russian scientists and engineers were rushed from Moscow to Bushehr when Russian leaders including Vladimir Putin were warned that the danger of an explosion at Bushehr was high. Neither Moscow nor Tehran reported what was happening. Now they are racing against the clock to get the reactor back on stream.

Russian experts estimated that an explosion at the Bushehr reactor had the potential for causing a million Iranian deaths and hundreds of thousands of radiation victims in the Persian Gulf emirates, which supply the world with one-fifth of its fuel. The hazard was so great in October that Putin ordered command teams of the Russian emergency ministry trained to deal with nuclear disasters to set out for Bushehr in southern Iran and prepare the infrastructure for larger teams.

The engineers immediately shut down the reactor and removed its 163 fuel rods. The bolts which had turned up in the reactor vessel were examined to find out from which part of the plant they had come loose – from the fuel rods – which would have embarrassed Russia as their supplier - or some other part of the reactor. The Russian source which revealed the mishap made a point of saying that the bolts were “small external parts,” indicating that they were not from the rods.
Our intelligence sources in Moscow report that two possible outside causes of the malfunction are under scrutiny by Moscow and Tehran:
1. The bolts were deliberately unscrewed and dropped into the reactor vessel as an act of sabotage;

2. The Stuxnet virus which attacked Iran’s nuclear program two years ago was back and had tampered with the reactor’s computers.

Five months ago, Iran suspended operations at the Fordo underground enrichment facility near Qom after the power lines supplying the plant were sabotaged on Aug. 17 and some of the centrifuges blew up. The Iranians resumed work at Fordo in the second half of September without discovering who was responsible for the incident. However, the suspicion of sabotage at Bushehr immediately crossed the minds of the Russian and Iranian investigators, although they have not ruled an accident or incompetence.
Bushehr supplies the Iran’s national electricity grid with one-fifth of its fuel and it was therefore important to get it running again without delay. Our sources report that Monday, Nov. 26, Iranian and Russian engineers reloaded the fuel rods – still without explaining why they had been removed.
Friday, Nov. 30, shortly before the disclosure from Moscow, Tehran for the first time in its twenty-year nuclear program showed concern about the impact of “nuclear accidents” at Iran’s nuclear sites on the wellbeing of the population and environment.
Gholamreza Massoumi, head of Iran’s accident and medical emergency center, announced: “We believe all of our emergency services should be trained and ready to face nuclear accidents.”
He referred to “accidents” at the Isfahan Uranium Conversion Facility where yellowcake is converted into highly toxic uranium hexafluoride and revealed: “People who have been in the region, for example – Isfahan’s UCF – have had some accidents for which they have been treated.”

He admitted that some employees at Isfahan had suffered from “health issues” and warned of “problems that civilians living close to nuclear sites could face.”
Massourni’s comments were removed from the semi-official Mehr news agency’s website a few hours after they were published.
Officials in Tehran, already jumpy over the near-catastrophe in Bushehr, must have realized that the comments about the urgent need to prepare emergency services for nuclear accidents, if tied in with the “health problems” at Isfahan and the near-disaster at Bushehr, were a recipe for a nightmare scenario of mass panic in the population and an outcry in the Gulf region against the hazards of Iran’s nuclear program – even before it produces a weapon.