Purveyor
Purveyor's JournalIsrael Pounding Gaza Strip From Air; Arab League Meets
Source: Washington Post
By Abigail Hauslohner The Washington Post
Sunday, November 18, 2012
(Published in print: Sunday, November 18, 2012)
Israel pounding Gaza Strip from air; Arab League meets
By Abigail Hauslohner The Washington Post
Sunday, November 18, 2012
(Published in print: Sunday, November 18, 2012)
Israel’s four-day-old air offensive in the Gaza Strip expanded to target Hamas government buildings yesterday, and Palestinian militants continued firing a torrent of rockets at civilian areas in southern Israel, as both sides stepped up diplomatic efforts to win support.
Israeli airstrikes over Gaza accelerated to nearly 200 early in the day, including one hit that reduced the offices of Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh to a smoldering concrete heap. That strike, along with others on a police headquarters and smuggling tunnels along the strip’s southern border with Egypt, raised questions about whether Israel had broadened its mission to including toppling the Hamas government that rules the coastal strip.
Just before sundown, Hamas said it had shot an Iranian-made Fajr-5 rocket at Tel Aviv, and air raid sirens sounded in that city for the third day in a row. The Israeli military said its newly deployed missile defense battery intercepted the rocket before it landed in the populous coastal city.
Even as airstrikes pounded yesterday morning, the foreign minister of Tunisia’s Islamist-led government, Rafik Abdessalem, arrived in Gaza with a delegation, underscoring Hamas’s newfound credibility in a region dramatically altered by the Arab Spring. Abdessalem expressed outrage at what he called Israeli “aggression” and pledged to unite with other Arab countries to end the conflict.
Read more: http://www.concordmonitor.com/news/livebreakingnews/2880807-95/gaza-hamas-israel-arab
For Israel’s PR War On Gaza, It May Be All Downhill From Here
By Chemi Shalev | Nov.17, 2012 | 9:15 PM
Israelis are resolute. World Jewry is united. President Obama has been unequivocally supportive. Many foreign leaders have shown understanding, even sympathy. Media coverage has been balanced, at worst. In the social media universe, the IDF Spokesman rules.
It was good while it lasted, but now it’s over. The tide may be turning. The zenith of Israel’s public relations campaign has been reached. And to mix in yet another metaphor, it’s all downhill from here.
It is an inevitable process, one repeated in almost every serious military campaign that Israel has waged in recent decades. From the First Lebanon War (1982) through Operation Accountability (1993), Grapes of Wrath (1996), Defensive Shield (2002), the Second Lebanon War (2007) and Operation Cast Lead (2008) – there is an inescapable progression from support to censure, from approval to opprobrium, from murmurs of sympathy to howls of protests.
---CLIP
But within 72 hours, more or less, newspaper editorials begin to question Israel’s motives and to wonder it isn’t using excessive force; gruesome photos of civilian Palestinian casualties start to get more air time than the low resolution videos of hi-tech aerial assassinations; world public opinion starts to pay attention, and then turns nasty; internal Israeli criticism gets increasingly vocal; then, some operational mishap occurs, a surgical strike goes awry, a hospital is bombed or an entire family is killed; finally, Israel is left to fight a rearguard PR battle that it has no hope of winning.
MORE...
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/for-israel-s-pr-war-on-gaza-it-may-be-all-downhill-from-here.premium-1.478616
Israel Authorizes More Reservists After Rockets Target Cities
By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Jeffrey Heller
GAZA/JERUSALEM | Fri Nov 16, 2012 5:31pm EST
(Reuters) - Israel's cabinet authorized the mobilization of up to 75,000 reservists late on Friday, preparing the ground for a possible Gaza invasion after Palestinians fired a rocket toward Jerusalem for the first time in decades.
Tel Aviv, Israel's commercial centre, also came under rocket attack for the second straight day, in defiance of an Israeli air offensive that began on Wednesday with the declared aim of deterring Hamas from launching cross-border attacks that have plagued southern Israel for years.
Hamas, the Islamist group that runs the Gaza Strip, claimed responsibility for firing at Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Israel said the rocket launched toward Jerusalem landed in the occupied West Bank, and the one fired at Tel Aviv did not hit the city. There were no reports of casualties.
The siren that sounded in Jerusalem stunned many Israelis. The city, holy to Jews, Muslims and Christians, was last struck by a Palestinian rocket in 1970, and it was not a target when Saddam Hussein's Iraq fired missiles at Israel in the 1991 Gulf War.
MORE...
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/16/us-palestinians-israel-hamas-idUSBRE8AD0WP20121116
BBC Apologises To Chief Rabbi Over On-Air Gaza Question
The BBC has apologised to the chief rabbi, Jonathan Sacks, after Radio 4's Today presenter Evan Davis asked him a question about the violence in Gaza without telling him he was live on air.
When Sacks finished his Thought for the Day on Friday morning, Davis asked him to comment on the Gaza situation before he left the studio.
Sacks, seemingly unaware that he was live, said "I think it's got to do with Iran, actually", before Davis' co-presenter Sarah Montague whispered: "We, we're live."
His tone then changed markedly and he called for "a continued prayer for peace, not only in Gaza but for the whole region, no one gains from violence".
MORE...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/nov/16/bbc-apologises-chief-rabbi-jonathan-sacks-gaza
Iran Ready To Double Nuclear Work In Bunker - IAEA
Source: Reuters
By Fredrik Dahl
VIENNA | Fri Nov 16, 2012 9:37pm GMT
(Reuters) - Iran is set to sharply expand its uranium enrichment in an underground plant after installing all the centrifuges it was built for, a U.N. report said, a move likely to increase Western alarm about Tehran's nuclear course.
It also showed that Iran's stockpile of its most sensitive nuclear material - which could relatively quickly be processed further to bomb-grade uranium - had grown and was getting closer to an amount that could be sufficient for a nuclear weapon.
The latest quarterly International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report on Iran came 10 days after the re-election of U.S. President Barack Obama, which raised hopes for a revival of nuclear diplomacy with Iran following speculation that Israel might attack the nuclear facilities of its arch-enemy soon.
But the U.N. watchdog's findings underlined the tough task facing world powers seeking to pressure Iran to curb atomic activity they fear is aimed at developing a nuclear weapons capability, a charge Tehran denies.
Read more: http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/11/16/uk-nuclear-iran-iaea-idUKBRE8AF1FY20121116
Turkey Raps Israel On Gaza, To Discuss With U.S., Egypt
Source: Reuters
ISTANBUL | Fri Nov 16, 2012 8:47am EST
(Reuters) - Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan decried Israeli's air strikes on Gaza on Friday as a pre-election stunt and said he would discuss the crisis with Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi in Cairo this weekend.
Under Erdogan's Islamist-rooted AK Party, Turkey has sought to use its clout as a rising democratic power in the Muslim world to increase its influence in the Middle East, distancing itself from former ally Israel.
Erdogan said he would speak by phone with U.S. President Barack Obama later on Friday and that Ankara was also seeking talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin amid the prospect of a full Israeli ground invasion.
The United States says it has asked Turkey and Egypt to encourage the Islamist Hamas movement that rules Gaza to cease rocket fire into Israel, but Erdogan laid the blame for the deepening crisis firmly on the Jewish state.
Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/16/us-palestinians-israel-turkey-idUSBRE8AF0TD20121116
Industrial Production in U.S. Drops 0.4% on Sandy Effect
Industrial production in the U.S. unexpectedly declined in October as superstorm Sandy knocked out power in the Northeast.
Output at factories, mines and utilities dropped 0.4 percent last month after a revised 0.2 percent increase in September that was smaller than previously estimated, Federal Reserve data showed today in Washington. Economists forecast a 0.2 percent gain, according to the Bloomberg survey median. The Fed said the storm cut total production by almost 1 percentage point.
American factories, a source of strength for much of the three-year expansion, face a persistent challenge from Europe’s recession and slower growth in Asia. Further cutbacks in capital spending by companies concerned about the possibility of $607 billion in automatic tax increases and spending reductions next year represent another hurdle for the industry.
“Manufacturing is still not the source of economic energy that it was earlier in the year,” said Ward McCarthy, chief financial economist of Jefferies & Co. Inc. in New York, the fourth-ranked forecaster of industrial production, according to a Bloomberg survey. “It’s a sluggish story on manufacturing. It’s not where it was.”
MORE...
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-11-16/industrial-production-in-u-s-drops-0-4-on-sandy-effect.html
Jordanians Protest Fuel-Subsidy Cut, Demand King’s Ouster
Source: Bloomberg
Thousands of Jordanians rallied around the country for a third day against the government’s decision to cut subsidies on fuel, with some demanding the ouster of King Abdullah II.
Security forces in Amman prevented protesters from marching to the royal court from Al Husseini mosque after the Friday sermon. While the demonstration broke up, protesters announced plans to continue the rally tonight outside the Ministry of Interior at the Dakhlia circle. Police barricaded the circle and are refusing entry to the area.
--CLIP
Rallying Cry
Some protesters today called for the king and Ensour to quit, chanting “Down with corrupt government,” “Down with Ensour” and “Down with the regime” -- the rallying cry of the Arab Spring uprisings.
The Obama administration recognizes the difficult situation of Jordan and respects the rights of people to protest peacefully, the state-run Petra news agency reported, citing Mark Toner, deputy State Department spokesman. The “reformatory road-map King Abdullah has provided responds to” Jordanians’ financial and political concerns and their aspirations, Toner said, according to Petra.
Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-11-16/jordanians-plan-protest-in-amman-over-cut-in-fuel-subsidy.html
Israel's Attack Underlines Helplessness, Hopelessness Of Gaza Palestinians
Ramallah, West Bank — The Globe and Mail
Published Friday, Nov. 16 2012, 9:19 AM EST
It is with horror that I watch the latest events in Gaza unfold. As a Canadian based in the West Bank who once lived in Gaza, I know the fear that is currently running through the veins of each man, woman and especially child as they face Israel’s unrelenting aerial and naval bombardment. My time in Gaza was marked by long periods of aerial bombings and sonic booms. I still– 6 years later – live with those horrible memories and the sheer sense of helplessness and hopelessness that ensued
Today, the Gaza Strip is a much different place. The people have not changed – they are just as vibrant, funny and full of life as they were when I lived there – but their living conditions, and prospects for a bright future, have grown dim.
Today, the people of Gaza suffer from a brutal blockade that has lasted for more than 6 years and isolation that has lasted for more than 20 years. Israel strictly controls imports into Gaza and exports are virtually non-existent. Palestinian life is so controlled by Israel that the Israeli government even sets policies on the minimum number of calories needed to prevent malnutrition. Access to the sea – one of their main sources of livelihood – is strictly curtailed and the water of the Gaza Strip is barely drinkable, with less than 5 per cent of their water supply fit for human consumption. Today, Gaza is an open-air prison and it comes as little surprise that UN agencies recently concluded that, in a few years, Gaza will become unlivable.
But these facts have to be put in their proper light by looking at the population of Gaza. Today, 90 per cent of Gaza’s population is descended from the over 750,000 Palestinians ethnically cleansed in 1947-1949 from their homes in what is today Israel. More than 50 per cent of the population of Gaza is under the age of 18 and 20 per cent are under the age of 5.
MORE...
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/commentary/helplessness-hopelessness-pervade-gaza-palestinians-under-israeli-oppression/article5363472/
Intensive Israeli airstrikes blitz Gaza Strip as death toll mounts
Source: alarabiya
By AL ARABIYA WITH REUTERS
Israeli aircraft attacked targets throughout the Gaza Strip on Thursday night, unleashing dozens of strikes in swift succession according to Al Arabiya correspondents and news agency witnesses.
The aerial bombardment set off earth-shaking thuds and fireballs in the dark sky and were met with screeches of Palestinian rocket fire launched from the outskirts of Gaza City towards southern Israel.
The airstrikes marked an escalation of two days of reciprocal attacks between the Palestinian militant Hamas group ensconced in the coastal enclave and the Israeli military, which killed a top Islamist leader on Wednesday.
Israel’s military said that in the space of an hour it had targeted approximately 70 underground launching sites for medium-range rockets.
Read more: http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/11/16/249866.html
MODS: Since the below linked article in LBN was allowed to stand and not sequester to the I/P, I assume this one will be allowed also.
I'm not sure what the criteria for I/P or other placement is these days.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014306357
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