IN ISRAEL

Gazans fired a few rockets at Israel on Friday, but none on Saturday and one on Sunday. IDF sources said that Islamic Jihad was severely beaten in the recent round of violence and that it would need time to rebuild its capabilities. “Islamic Jihad was hit hard in the recent round of violence but the rocket fire continued since it needs to be able to have the last word,” a senior IDF source said over the weekend. On the other hand, the source said that the IDF was impressed by Islamic Jihad’s ability to fire more than 300 rockets during the main five days of hostilities, even though a significant number hit in Gaza and close to 60 were intercepted by the Iron Dome counter-rocket defense system. In an effort toward bluster, a member of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s Al-Quds Brigades said the group was ready to expand the reach of its rocket fire beyond the Israeli settlement of Ashdod, which lies some 20 miles outside Gaza. Abu Ibrahim said: “If the occupation targets any leader of any Palestinian group whatsoever or any citizen, the Brigades will respond with force and expand the reach of the response beyond Ashdod.” 200,000 students in the south were going back to school on Sunday morning after a relatively quiet weekend which saw a single rocket fired from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel.

The success of the Iron Dome rocket defense system in the fighting in southern Israel last week should end once and for all discussions about whether it is worthwhile. All doubt has been removed: this is a defense system that saves lives and its continued development must be granted the special status of a national project. Almost 60 grad rockets fired from the Gaza Strip last week were destroyed in the air using the Iron Dome system. These rockets were bound for Israeli targets of residential neighborhoods, busy road junctions, shopping centers, and crowded streets in Ashdod, Ashkelon, Beersheva, Kiryat Malachi and Netivot. A rocket attack on this scale, without Iron Dome, would have forced the IDF to mobilize the reserves and embark on a broad-scale operation in Gaza. Iron Dome provided protection not only for Israel’s southern cities but also saved itself from cynical officials in Tel Aviv’s Ministry of Defense and IDF headquarters who wanted to dismantle the system.

Israel has installed new radar systems on the Gaza border to eliminate blind spots and reduce infiltrations, the IDF says. The new “Baron” and “Baroness” systems are equipped with a wide view scanning technology that eliminate the need to rotate like traditional radars. The systems can scan an entire section of the border and track multiple targets simultaneously, according to a post on the IDF blog. In addition, the systems are sensitive to objects moving at low speeds – in fact, they can even pick up lizards and trees waving in the breeze.

Over the weekend, Ahmadinejad met with participants of the Global March to Jerusalem which is scheduled to take place at the end of March in time for Land Day. A statement on behalf of Ahmadinejad said that it was illegitimate for Israel to occupy any part of Palestine. He said that the Palestinians must rule the land. “No matter how strong the enemies are, they will be destroyed and we must prepare for the great day in which arrogance will be wiped from the face of the earth,” he said.

The Israel Mission to the UN has formally requested that the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) fire its national officer in Jerusalem, Khulood Badawi, due to her blatant anti-Israel activism, Fox News reported over the weekend. Last week, the report said, Badawi used Twitter to send a picture of a bloodied child in her father’s arms with a caption: “Palestine is bleeding. Another child killed by Israel. Another father carrying a child into a grave in Gaza.” The Twitter message, which was a huge hit, claimed that the Palestinian girl had died from an Israeli airstrike the day before, but an Israeli examination of this claim found that the girl was killed in a car accident in 2006. In his letter to OCHA Under-Secretary General Valerie Amos, Israeli Ambassador to the UN Ron Prosor wrote: “The picture was taken and published in 2006 by Reuters, which reported that this child died in an accident. She was not killed by Israeli forces.” Ambassador Prosor is calling for Badawi‘s immediate dismissal for the inflammatory tweet, writing, “Ms. Badawi stands in complete violation of articles 100 and 101 of the UN Charter.”

Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal paid a surprise visit to Ankara for talks on Palestinian reconciliation and the Middle East. Mashaal met with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Friday afternoon. The meeting reportedly focused mainly on Palestinian reconciliation, but there was discussion of the fresh bouts of violence that erupted between Israel and Palestinian resistance groups. Mashaal accused Israel of using fabricated excuses to do a field test of its Iron Dome system to determine how well it would work against an Iranian attack. Prior to the recent Gaza conflict, top Hamas officials sent controversial signals that they would not stay on the sidelines if Israel attacks Iran. Afterward, Iran’s Fars News Agency quoted Mahmoud Zahar, a senior Hamas official in Gaza, as saying that “retaliation with utmost power is the position of Hamas with regard to a Zionist war on Iran.” Although Hamas has cut ties with Syria, its relations with Iran, which backs the Syrian regime, have barely been affected. Speculation has surfaced that Iran-Hamas ties deteriorated after Hamas abandoned the Assad regime, while Iran remained loyal. Furthermore, claims have surfaced that the flow of Iranian aid to Gaza was affected negatively as a result of international sanctions that have hit the Iranian economy. However, official visits between the organization and the Iranian administration over the past two months point to the opposite. Using the meeting as momentum, Mashaal called for a unity agreement between Palestinian factions saying peace is mandatory for Palestinians who are united in fighting Israeli occupation. Mashaal dismissed rivalry between Palestinian groups as a “conspiracy” targeting the Palestinians.

WAR & PEACE
Two suicide bombers detonated cars packed with explosives killed at least 27 people in near-simultaneous attacks on heavily guarded intelligence and security buildings in Damascus on Saturday. The regime blamed the opposition, which denied having a role or the capabilities to carry out such a sophisticated attack. After other similar attacks, U.S. officials suggested al-Qaida, its terrorist wing of the CIA, may be joining the fray. Al-Qaida’s involvement could further fuel the sectarian tensions that the uprising has already stoked. Al-Qaida’s supporters are largely Sunni Muslim extremists. But it was a previously unknown Islamist group calling itself Al-Nusra Front to Protect the Levant, not Al-Qaida, that claimed responsibility for the attacks in a video posted online, saying it carried them out “to avenge the people of Homs.” Homs is an opposition stronghold in central Syria that has been hard-hit in the government crackdown. The blasts also raised questions about how suicide car bombers were able to penetrate high-security areas in Damascus.

The US and Saudio Arabia are reportedly using Jordan as its smuggling venue, but the black market is almost dry, according to merchants in Lebanon.

Kofi Anna, the UN special envoy charged with trying to help end the violence in Syria, says he plans to return to the nation after a team heads there this week to prepare more talks for him. Russia is urging Bashar al-Assad to cooperate with him, saying Annan is not seeking to oust al-Assad.

Iranian sources in Dubai report that a shipment of arms and ammunition hailing from Saudi Arabia is on its way through Jordan, to be smuggled across the border with Syria to equip the armed uprising. According to the sources, Saudis are acting in anger against US non-intervention to stop Assad’s crackdown and Turkey’s all-talk, no-action stance. The Saudi rulers were moved to offset the Iranian arms airlift to Syria via Iraq. Two days ago Syrian security forces confiscated a weapons cargo being smuggled across the Lebanese border: it reportedly contained four RPG’s, five Israeli-made mortars and three anti-tank missiles, besides a load of sniper rifles.
The rift between the Saudi-led anti-Iran Gulf block and the Iran-led alliance of Syria, Hizbollah and Hamas is widening. For their part, Turkish army sources said they would have to face up to hundreds of thousands of refugees from Syria in case of a full-fledged Libya-style military operation on the neighbouring country. Asked whether they are still mulling the possibility of creating so-called safe zones inside Syria, near the border, the Turkish army sources gave cautious replies, pointing out that such a move would by all accounts amount to open warfare, from which their country refrains unless explicitly authorized by UN resolutions and appropriately backed up by its military allies.

The Obama administration expressed concern on Friday that Iranian planes may be ferrying weapons over Iraq to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, and asked Baghdad to cut off its airspace to any such flights. In Baghdad, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said his country would seek to stem the flow of weapons in general, and especially those being smuggled into Syria. He said Iraq would not allow its land or sky to be a conduit for weapons heading in any direction or from any source.

The U.S. Navy is upgrading its defensive and offensive capabilities in the Persian Gulf to counter threats from Iran to seize the Strait of Hormuz and block the flow of oil, the chief of naval operations said Friday. Adm. Jonathan W. Greenert told reporters in Washington that the Navy will add four more mine-sweeping ships and four more CH-53 Sea Stallion helicopters with mine-detection capability. The U.S. currently has more seapower aimed at Iran in the Persian Gulf than in the fleets of most countries on Earth, Iran included. But that was just the Navy cracking its knuckles. In the next few months, the Navy will double its minesweeper craft stationed in Bahrain, near Iran, from four to eight. Those ships will be crucial if Iran takes the drastic step of mining the Strait of Hormuz, one of the global energy supply’s most crucial waterways. The Navy is also sending more underwater unmanned mine-neutralization units to the region. Greenert said he plans to assign more patrol craft to the gulf, as well, possibly armed with Mark 38 Gatling guns. The same kind of guns might be placed on ships that provide protection for U.S. aircraft carriers or perhaps on the carriers themselves. Four more MH-53 “Sea Stallion” helicopters, another minesweeping tool, are also getting ready for Bahrain, to give the U.S. Fifth Fleet early warning for any strait mining. Then the Navy will prepare to get closer to Iranian shores. It’s got five close-action patrol boats in the Gulf right now. Once the Coast Guard returns three that the Navy loaned out, the Navy will have five other patrol craft in the United States. All those boats are getting retrofitted with Gatling guns and missiles.

In a tit for tat display of war rhetoric, Iran’s Navy Commander Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari says the Islamic Republic naval forces have now established a presence in the backyard of arrogant powers, the Mediterranean Sea.  He said, “In the past, Iran’s Navy only carried out its missions within the perimeters of the Persian Gulf waters, but has now established a presence in the backyard of arrogant powers.” The Iranian commander went on to describe Iran’s presence in international waters as an indication of the Islamic Republic’s “prowess and solidity” in the international arena. Iran’s Navy has increased its presence in international waters since last year, deploying vessels in the Indian Ocean and sending two ships to the Mediterranean Sea for the first time in February 2011 via the Suez Canal.

US & WORLD ECONOMY
Oil prices fell by $3 per barrel late last week following rumours that the United States may release emergency stocks and that Saudi Arabia is preparing to extend this year’s unexpected jump in oil sales to the United States, adding to speculation about the response of the world’s top oil exporter to sanctions against Iran and a rally in prices. The kingdom’s shipments to the United States have quietly risen 25 percent to the highest level since mid-2008, according to preliminary U.S. government data, a sizeable leap that appears at least partly related to the imminent completion of a major expansion at its joint-venture Motiva refinery in Texas. But some say the scale of the increase, plus other U.S. data showing Gulf Coast inventories are still subdued, suggest the potential for a political dimension as well, evoking comparisons to 2008 when the OPEC kingpin was driving up production to knock oil prices off record highs near $150 a barrel.

WHITE HOUSE
There’s a lot of news this weekend about an executive order issued on Friday afternoon by Obama titled “National Defense Resources Preparedness.” While the timing of the executive order is curious — why send it out on a Friday afternoon when an administration is usually trying to sneak bad news past the media? — the general impact of it has been negligible. This executive order simply updates another one, # (12919), that had been in place since June 1994, and that has since been amended several times. Why the update?  If one takes a look at EO 12919, the big change is in the Cabinet itself.  In 1994, we didn’t have a Department of Homeland Security, for instance, and some of these functions would naturally fall to DHS.  In EO 12919, the FEMA director had those responsibilities, and the biggest change between the two is the removal of several references to FEMA (ten in all).   Otherwise, there aren’t a lot of changes between the two EOs, which looks mainly like boilerplate. In fact, that’s almost entirely what it is, according to this report by Hotair.com, but let’s remain vigilant just in case.

NATURAL & MANMADE DISASTERS
A NASA-sponsored program that scans the cosmos for potentially dangerous asteroids is being upgraded to improve its ability to hunt for space rocks that might collide with Earth. NASA is doling out a new $4.1 million grant for the Catalina Sky Survey (CSS), which is based at the University of Arizona in Tucson. The funds will be used to upgrade and operate the program’s telescopes through 2015. This new injection of funds comes just in time. A newly discovered asteroid will come so close to Earth next year that it actually passes below many man-made satellites. Just 50 meters across, 2012 DA14 was hard to spot. The La Sagra Sky Survey observatory in Spain discovered itonly on 22 February – after it had flown past Earth at about seven times the distance of the moon. However, current predictions indicate that on its next flyby, due on 15 February 2013, it will pass Earth at just 24,000 km. Scientists have ruled out a collision.

The sky just swelled to contain over 560 million objects. NASA this week released to the Web an atlas and catalog of 18,000 images consisting of more than 563 million stars, galaxies, asteroids, planets, and other objects in the sky–many of which have never been seen or identified before–along with data on all of those objects. The space agency’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) mission, which was a collaboration of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the University of California Los Angeles, collected the data over the past two years, capturing more than 2.7 million images and processing more than 15 TB of astronomical data along the way. In order to make the data easier to use, NASA condensed the 2.7 million digital images down to 18,000 that cover the entire sky.

IN ISRAEL
A Grad rocket fired at the southern Israeli city of Ashdod from the Gaza Strip on Thursday evening was intercepted by the Iron Dome air defense system. Four more were fired earlier, but none caused any casualties or damage. In response, Israeli assault helicopters opened fire on the northern Gaza Strip late Thursday. The action puts pressure on the new truce between the two sides.

After a week of non-stop missile fire on a dozen towns and villages, Israel Thursday night gave Egypt and Hamas two days to halt the shooting or else the IDF will go into action against Gaza. debkafile’s military sources report that neither Egypt nor Hamas can be expected to go up against the missile shooters because the attacks have now been taken over from Jihad Islami by a small group of Salafi Palestinians that belongs to Jalalat, an al Qaeda organization. Most of the missiles coming from the Salafi concentrations target the southern cities. Egypt and Hamas don’t know exactly who is giving Haraka the missiles, except that they are smuggled from Sinai through tunnels managed by Iranian intelligence agents in conjunction with local al Qaeda networks. It is highly unlikely that Hamas will venture to lay hands on these Salafi terrorists at a time when one of its top officials in Gaza, Mahmoud A-Zahar, is visiting Tehran for talks with Iranian leaders who are keen to keep the missile assaults going. His visit marks the Hamas fundamentalists’ return to the Iranian fold – that is if they ever really left it. Israeli strategists have chosen to ignore and are treating Hamas as a non-participant in the missile offensive and available to help Cairo bring the terrorists to accept a ceasefire, but the sequence of events leading up to this week’s violence points to the opposite conclusion and probably the reason for the escalation of the violence rather than a solid truce. Five days before the missile fire began, on March 5, a Hamas Deputy Politburo Chief Mousa Abu Marzouk and Hizballah’s Hassan Nasrallah met in Beirut and finalized tactics for building up tensions on Israel’s borders. Monday, March 12, Mahmoud A-Zahar was in Cairo to wind up Gaza ceasefire terms with Egyptian officials when, to their astonishment, instead of returning to Gaza, he boarded a plane to Tehran. He is still there. And so, while the Egyptians try and reach some sort of accommodation with Hamas for a truce, Hamas itself is in close communion with the Iranians, who want to see the Israeli military stuck in a messy a showdown with the Palestinian Salafis.

Iran is paying off Hamas members to form independent militias to do Tehran’s bidding against Israel, according to WND. Iran has been paying off Hamas militia members to answer directly to Tehran instead of the Hamas leadership amid a stated decision by the Islamic group to stay out of any war between Iran and Israel. Now, Hamas sources say they have found at least seven high Hamas military officers bribed by Iran to work with Islamic Jihad and other Gazan groups to keep firing rockets at Israel during any confrontation between the Jewish state and Iran. Hamas has been probing whether Iran is planning a coup d’état against it but has only found information about the bribes. Egyptian intelligence officials have been mediating between Israel and Hamas in an attempt to restore calm on the Israel-Gaza border. Egyptian officials involved in the talks say that Hamas has been trying to halt the rocket-fire coming from Iranian-sponsored Gazan groups, including Islamic Jihad.The Egyptian officials say Hamas asked them to press Islamic Jihad to agree to a cease-fire. The sources complain that Iran has been pressuring Islamic Jihad to escalate the rocket attacks. Citing Hamas sources, WND reported last December that the jihadist group had been asked by the Egyptian military to stay out of any future confrontation between Israel and Iran. For the first time in recent years, Hamas, buoyed by major Muslim Brotherhood gains in the region, was considering distancing itself somewhat from Iran, the sources said. Just last week, senior Hamas member Salah Bardawil said in an interview with the Guardian newspaper of London that Hamas “will not do Iran’s bidding in any war with Israel and will not launch rockets at Israel at Tehran’s request. If there is a war between two powers, Hamas will not be part of such a war.” Zahar concurred with Bardawil. Later, however, Zahar denied telling the BBC that Hamas would respond to an Israel attack on Iran saying, “Retaliation with utmost power is the position of Hamas with regard to a Zionist war on Iran.”

Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar was in Iran Thursday, meeting with leaders to gather support following a weekend of military exchanges with Israel, Iranian state-run news agency IRNA reported. Zahar met with Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi, according to the report, who expressed his full support for the Palestinian cause and condemned the “dastard atrocities of the Zionist regime.” He also said, “If Israel decides to conduct a military strike on nuclear sites in Iran, it will be the end of the Jewish state. “If Israel ever, ever makes this mistake, that will set the time for the end of Israel. The Israelis are well aware of this.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is preparing public opinion in Israel for a war against Iran, a leading political commentator has said. Netanyahu is attempting to convince the Israeli public that the Iranian threat is a “tangible and existential one”, and that there is only one effective way to stop it and prevent a “second Holocaust which is an Israeli military attack on Iran’s nuclear infrastructure. The Israeli leader in his speech to the Knesset yesterday urged his colleagues to reject claims that Israel is too weak to go it alone in a war against a regional power such as Iran and therefore needs to rely on the US, which has much greater military capabilities, to do the job and remove the threat. The Israeli military has been practicing for what many here fear is an inevitable confrontation with Iran. They are holding drills to rehearse decontaminating victims in the case of a chemical weapons attack. They are also preparing for a possible missile attack from Iran or its allies on Israel’s borders — Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Hamas in Gaza. Israeli Homeland Command Lt. Col. Yonathan Raz says these exercises have a new sense of urgency. When asked if things are more tense, he replied, “In the Middle East it’s always tense.” Now things are getting tenser.

In a statement going out broadly on the internet and in Washington, D.C. today, the Lyndon LaRouche Political Action Committee (LPAC) declares: “Obama’s Lying: Far from holding Netanyahu back, he told him “Go Ahead and Strike Iran,— We’ll Support You!” Go to BWN.com to read the full story.

Advanced anti-aircraft missiles which belonged to former Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi have fallen into the hands of Hamas and Hezbollah, according to a new report. According to the report, the weaponry was smuggled out of Libya and into Iran, and from there Hezbollah received their supply through Syria while Hamas received theirs through Egypt.

Dozens of Iranian banks were blocked from doing business with much of the world on Thursday.The Belgium-based company that facilitates most international bank transfers took the unprecedented step of blocking 30 Iranian banks from using its service. The move is likely to hurt Iran’s all-important oil industry and make it difficult for citizens to receive money from relatives living abroad. Israeli threats of attack on Iran are what sparked the latest round of sanctions.

The U.S. military is doubling the number of minesweeping ships it keeps in the Persian Gulf, part of a buildup in the region amid tensions with Iran over its nuclear ambitions. The Navy’s top officer said the U.S. would send four minesweeping ships along 8 with additional mine-hunting helicopters to bolster U.S. defenses in the region.

PLO Executive Committee member Saeb Erekat Thursday said that the Middle East Quartet must hold the Israeli government fully accountable for bringing the peace process to a halt. He said during a meeting in Jericho with the special UN coordinator for the Middle East peace process, Robert Serry, that the national reconciliation does not contradict with the peace process, rather it promotes and supports it. He said it is imperative for the Quartet to declare that Israel did not comply with its September statement since it insisted on continuing with settlement activities and refused to accept the two-state solution based on the 1967 borders.

WAR & PEACE
Syrian troops clashed with army defectors in several areas near the capital Damascus in the first significant battles there since Al-Assad’s forces regained control of the suburbs weeks ago, activists said on Friday. The fighting came just hours before tens of thousands of people held protests in many Syrian towns and cities after Friday prayers.

Turkey threatened to launch a military incursion into northern Syria Thursday after refugees fleeing alleged massacres by pro-Assad forces poured across its frontiers. The warning came as the Arab Red Crescent predicted that as many as 500,000 Syrian civilians could seek refuge in Turkey.

Egypt’s prominent Muslim cleric Safwat Hejazi has said that the killing of Syrian President Bashar Al Assad is a duty for every Muslim. “He who has the chance to kill Al Assad and does not do this is a sinner,” Hejazi told a rally held in Cairo in support of a popular revolt against Al Assad’s rule.

Syria’s president shows few signs of going anywhere. As his military routs rebel forces in Homs and Idlib, intercepted emails appear to reveal his wife furniture shopping for their Damascus home. Assad may derive some of his confidence from a system built by his father, Hafez al-Assad, that has let the family stay in power for the past 40 years. “This regime came about as a result of a coup in 1970 and was designed from the beginning to resist rebellion, to resist coups,” explains Paul Salem, director of the Carnegie Middle East Center. The elder Assad established an intricate web of often overlapping intelligence services, separate entities that means even the watchers are being watched. Like his son, he staffed key positions with members of his Alawite minority, warning them, as well as minority Christians and Druze, of the perils of an unleashed Sunni majority. The result, so far, has been a coherent center, with the highest civilian defection being a deputy oil minister this month, nearly a year into the uprising.

The Iraqi government has refused U.S. requests to stop Iranian cargo flights to Syria, despite being aware of credible intelligence that the planes are transporting up to 30 tons of weapons, according to a U.S. official. The U.S. has made several requests in recent months to the Iraqi government, including directly to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, to either stop allowing Iran to use its airspace or allow the planes to be inspected in compliance with international law. Iraq has refused, saying the planes are carrying only humanitarian aid.

US & WORLD ECONOMY
Inflation heated up a bit in February rising 0.4% in February. And according to economists the 18% boost is gasoline prices since December, is still not showing much impact on consumer prices.

NWO, ISLAM & GLOBAL GOVERNMENT
The NSA is building the biggest ever spy center in the US. Under construction by contractors with top-secret clearances, the blandly named Utah Data Center is being built. It’s a project of immense secrecy, and it is the final piece in a complex puzzle assembled over the past decade. Its purpose: to intercept, decipher, analyze, and store vast swaths of the world’s communications as they zap down from satellites and zip through the underground and undersea cables of international, foreign, and domestic networks.

Earlier this month, General Petraeus talked about the emergence of an “Internet of Things” — that is, wired devices — at a summit for In-Q-Tel, the CIA’s venture capital firm. All those new online devices are a treasure trove of data if you’re a “person of interest” to the spy community. Once upon a time, spies had to place a bug in your chandelier to hear your conversation. With the rise of the “smart home,” you will be sending tagged, geolocated data that a spy agency can intercept in real time when you use the lighting app on your phone to adjust your living room’s ambiance.

The CIA has a lot of legal restrictions against spying on American citizens. But collecting ambient geolocation data from devices is a grayer area, especially after the 2008 carve-outs to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Hardware manufacturers, it turns out, store a trove of geolocation data; and some legislators have grown alarmed at how easy it is for the government to track you through your phone or PlayStation.That’s not the only data exploit intriguing Petraeus. He’s interested in creating new online identities for his undercover spies — and sweeping away the “digital footprints” of agents who suddenly need to vanish.

NATURAL & MANMADE DISASTERS
Dexter, MI hit by a tornado that damaged 100 homes yesterday. Initial estimates were that the storm had winds of around 135 mph and lingered on the ground for about a half-hour, plowing a path about 10 miles long. The tornado was part of a slow-moving system that also brought large hail, heavy rain and high winds. Gusts downed power lines, sparking fires. Amazingly, no serious injuries were reported.

Hamas has, in recent months, appeared to be leaving Iran’s fold, but the truth may be that “appeared” is the operative word. The organization’s leader and co-founder, Mahmoud Al-Zahar, is in Tehran after having been in Cairo until the Gaza Strip violence began. It is being reported in the Jewish press that Hamas has switched allegiances. On the surface, this makes sense because Hamas is a Sunni, Muslim Brotherhood organization and Iran is a Shiite country. The only thing they hate worse than each other is Israel.

This information from Debka.com has been useful in understanding this: “After five days of non-stop missile fire on a dozen towns and villages, Israel Thursday night gave Egypt and Hamas two days to halt the shooting or else the IDF will go into action against Gaza. debkafile’s military sources report that neither Egypt nor Hamas can be expected to go up against the missile shooters because the attacks have now been taken over from Jihad Islami by a small group of Salafi Palestinians that belongs to Jalalat, an al Qaeda organization. Most of the missiles coming from the Salafi concentrations target the southern cities. Egypt and Hamas don’t know exactly who is giving Haraka the missiles, except that they are smuggled from Sinai through tunnels managed by Iranian intelligence agents in conjunction with local al Qaeda networks. It is highly unlikely that Hamas will venture to lay hands on these Salafi terrorists at a time when one of its top officials in Gaza, Mahmoud A-Zahar, is visiting Tehran for talks with Iranian leaders who are keen to keep the missile assaults going. His visit marks the Hamas fundamentalists’ return to the Iranian fold – that is if they ever really left it. Israeli strategists have chosen to ignore and are treating Hamas as a non-participant in the missile offensive and available to help Cairo bring the terrorists to accept a ceasefire, but the sequence of events leading up to this week’s violence points to the opposite conclusion and probably the reason for the escalation of the violence rather than a solid truce. Five days before the missile fire began, on March 5, a Hamas Deputy Politburo Chief Mousa Abu Marzouk and Hizballah’s Hassan Nasrallah met in Beirut and finalized tactics for building up tensions on Israel’s borders. Monday, March 12, Mahmoud A-Zahar was in Cairo to wind up Gaza ceasefire terms with Egyptian officials when, to their astonishment, instead of returning to Gaza, he boarded a plane to Tehran. He is still there. And so, while the Egyptians try and reach some sort of accommodation with Hamas for a truce, Hamas itself is in close communion with the Iranians, who want to see the Israeli military stuck in a messy a showdown with the Palestinian Salafis.”

WND reports that “Iran is paying off Hamas members to form independent militias to do Tehran’s bidding against Israel, according to WND. Iran has been paying off Hamas militia members to answer directly to Tehran instead of the Hamas leadership amid a stated decision by the Islamic group to stay out of any war between Iran and Israel. Now, Hamas sources say they have found at least seven high Hamas military officers bribed by Iran to work with Islamic Jihad and other Gazan groups to keep firing rockets at Israel during any confrontation between the Jewish state and Iran. Hamas has been probing whether Iran is planning a coup d’état against it but has only found information about the bribes. Egyptian intelligence officials have been mediating between Israel and Hamas in an attempt to restore calm on the Israel-Gaza border. Egyptian officials involved in the talks say that Hamas has been trying to halt the rocket-fire coming from Iranian-sponsored Gazan groups, including Islamic Jihad.The Egyptian officials say Hamas asked them to press Islamic Jihad to agree to a cease-fire. The sources complain that Iran has been pressuring Islamic Jihad to escalate the rocket attacks.”

This latest round of Gaza violence has the stink of some kind of intervention all over it. The US wants a war with Iran. Is the US using intelligence about the shifting allegiances in the Middle East to get its war while, simultaneously, Tehran is doing its own manipulation? Netanyahu repeatedly has said this week that this round of Gaza violence is a run-up to a war with Iran. That Netanyahu reportedly got a green light from Obama to defend itself in Gaza is a huge clue the US is somehow involved. There seems to be more going on here than can be easily deciphered.

We usually only gain true understanding of these things after the fact. We must keep watching and praying because there is something strange going on right now. It may be that we are about to see Syria and Iran sweep into Israel over this latest round of fighting, thus fulfilling prophecy.

Then it was Netanyahu’s turn to show the world who is the more humble and better statesman. He was careful to thank Obama for the lovely White House dinner – an obvious and righteous reminder of that former dinner that wasn’t – and the opportunity to meet with Obama, as if such a thing was an extraordinary event. From then on, Netanyahu removed the gloves.

First, Netanyahu presented Obama with a very telling gift: A scroll of the Book of Esther. The Book of Esther tells the story of a Persian man who wanted to annihilate all the Jews. The gift was timely, coming just before Purim, the celebration of Esther’s victory over the evil Haman. Netanyahu was careful to point out that Israel has been around for almost 4,000 years and has been targeted by many past empires for annihilation, but all have failed. He said that now, with him as Prime Minister, it falls on his shoulders to work with Obama to achieve peace.

Netanyahu spoke of the Palestinian issue saying they will have to accept some basic realities. He said Israel is willing to make generous contributions to the peace process, but will not return to 1967 borders and will not negotiate with Hamas. He said Israel will continue its military presence along the Jordanian border. The Palestinian refugee problem is another issue that needs addressed. Netanyahu said he will not compromise on allowing Palestinian refugees into Israel because doing so will wipe out the Jewish state.

Netanyahu succinctly and diplomatically put Obama in his place, saying Israel will decide how to defend itself. When it comes to defense of Israel, Netanyahu warned Obama that there is no margin for error because Israel’s enemies will not give Israel a second chance to be a nation.

Behind closed doors, however, the interaction was not as friendly as in the video. While publicly reiterating that there is still a window that allows for a diplomatic resolution of the issue, Obama admitted privately to Netanyahu that the Fordow underground uranium enrichment plant can no longer be destroyed by bombs and missiles. American commanders say all that can be done is to block the vents of this underground facility and slowly stifle the personnel inside. Time and several strikes would be needed to accomplish this. Netanyahu responded that Iran is building not just one Fordow, but ten. He said, “We can’t wait much longer.” In other words, the talk of open windows and more time is moot, even though Obama says there is no intelligence that supports Iran has made a final decision to pursue a nuclear weapon.

One inauspicious news report, which aired on Israel’s channel 2 just hours ahead of the Obama/Netanyahu meeting, says Israel has already decided to attack, though no date was given for the strike. This was followed by another report that said Israel will not wait until after the US Presidential election to strike Iran. An Israeli attack on Iran is therefore to be expected at some time in the coming months.

Netanyahu addressed congress today, repeating what he said to Obama

Netanyahu brought 14,000 pro-Israel lobby cheering delegates to their feet on Monday night. They especially approved of his announcement that never again will the Jewish people live in the shadow of annihilation.

Today, Israel announced its plans to test the Arrow 3 missile system in coming weeks, adding to speculation about a future conflict with Iran.

In response to Monday’s meeting and Netanyahu’s speeches, Iran, Syria and Hezbollah have announced they will strike Israel if there is any military incursion into Syria from the outside. This announcement follows up many days of bombardment by Syria in several towns, including Homs where 700 plus people died over the weekend. More than 2000 Syrians have fled into Lebanon in recent days. The UN estimates that 70,000 people have been displaced since the uprising against Bashar al-Assad began last March, and that more than 20,000 have fled to Lebanon, Turkey and Jordan.

Abbas is considering stepping down as one of several options to protest Israel’s freeze of the peace process. Abdul Rahman told al-Sharq Saudi newspaper that one of the suggested options is to dissolve the Palestinian authority, start a non-violent popular uprising, and cancel economic and security coordination with Israel.

The Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) plans to issue a “surprising” statement to Netanyahu regarding the future of the peace process, Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper reported on Monday. According to the newspaper, the statement will give Israel “one more chance” to restart peace talks. Abbas has named a special committee to draft the letter with Abbas drafting the “historic introduction” in which he details the major reasons behind the failure of the Oslo Accords, which incidentally, holds Israel 100% responsible.

Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah said on Monday that Israeli-Palestinian negotiations were doomed to fail, and called on Muslims and Christians to take Jerusalem from Israel. At the same time, a coalition of major religious organizations — Christian, Jewish and Muslim — are calling on the U.S. government and political candidates to renew the push for an Israeli-Palestinian peace plan.

The National Interreligious Leadership Initiative has issued a letter calling on leaders to:

• Urge Israel, in warnings and through diplomatic channels, to implement an immediate ceasefire.
• Urge Israel to halt all settlement expansion, including in East Jerusalem.
• Continue to support Palestinian state-building and economic development capacity, including immediately lifting the Congressional hold on humanitarian aid.

Here in the US, a Republican congressional candidate in the upcoming Illinois primary blatantly denies the Holocaust, calling it “the blackest lie in history.” Arthur Jones, who hopes to be the Republican nominee against Democratic Congressman Dan Lipinski in the Illinois’ 3^rd Congressional District, claimed that the “Holocaust never happened” and said that, “As far as [he is] concerned, the Holocaust is nothing more than an international extortion racket by the Jews.”

In Syria, people fleeing Homs have told the BBC that security forces are committing atrocities there. Men and boys were being detained in raids or at checkpoints, and then tortured or even executed summarily, they said. There are also reports, backed up by video, of torture in hospitals. One woman told the BBC’s Paul Wood on the outskirts of the city that soldiers had rounded up 36 men and boys in her district, including her son, on Friday – a day after rebel fighters withdrew from the Baba Amr district. “My son’s throat was cut,” she said. “He was 12.”

Russia and china are attempting to end the violence of Bashar al-Assad. China drafted a new six point plan that will be presented to al-Assad this week. The Russians will be in attendance at the meeting to introduce the plan.

World equity markets slipped on Monday after economic data raised expectations of recessions in both Europe and China. The Russian economy is also showing signs of slippage. The economic troubles in these countries may lead to their increased willingness to engage in war to end their economic woes.

American Muslims are launching an education campaign on sharia. They want to “educate Americans” on what they say is the noble meaning of Sharia through conferences, billboards, and TV and radio. The Islamic Circle of North America is also launching a national hot line to answer questions about Sharia and Islam.

Finally, go to Monday, March 5^th edition of Beast Watch News to watch Rabbi Johnathan Cohn speak on his book “the Harbinger” that explains the prophetic significance of 9/11.

That’s the weekly news update from Beast Watch News.com. Click over there to stay abreast of all the latest Bible prophecy headline news. You can even subscribe to be informed every day except Shabbat. And remember, Joh_16:33  These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.

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Chossudovsky asserts the US is provoking the war with Iran. Why is the US and its European allies provoking trouble? The non-Biblical zionist entity, AKA “The New World Order” who is trying to put an Edomite on David’s throne, is being used by God to cause the wars that will utlimately destroy all of His enemies.

Jer_25:9 Behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, saith the LORD, and Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this land, and against the inhabitants of it, and against all these nations round about, and will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and a hissing, and perpetual desolations.

Jer 25:29 For, lo, I begin to bring evil on the city which is called by my name, and should ye be utterly unpunished? Ye shall not be unpunished: for I will call for a sword upon all the inhabitants of the earth, saith the LORD of hosts.

Jer 25:31 A noise shall come even to the ends of the earth; for the LORD hath a controversy with the nations, he will plead with all flesh; he will give them that are wicked to the sword, saith the LORD. <br>

Jer 5:15 Lo, I will bring a nation upon you from far, O house of Israel, saith the LORD: it is a mighty nation, it is an ancient nation, a nation whose language thou knowest not, neither understandest what they say.

Rev_13:1  And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.

The “sea” is symbolic of people. It rises out of the people. …OF the people, …BY the people, …FOR the people. Do you see that America is the entity that causes the Beast, Islam, to rise? And do you see that it is America that God is using to provoke the world into war with the families of the north?

Who is the “families of the north”? They are those countries that lie north of Israel. America is God’s instrument to bring about the end, but not in the way most believers think. All military roads lead to Israel.

Bedouins have stormed an Egyptian resort in the Sinai Peninsula…Again! This is just one incident in a long string of incidents. The Bedouins demanded 4m Egyptian pounds as they held a few security guards hostage. But this is only a problem for Egypt, right? Wrong! They’ve made it Israel’s problem.

The Guardian reports: “Egyptian officials said it would be difficult to mount any police or military response given the constraints imposed upon Egypt as a result of its peace treaty with Israel, which regulates the amount of security personnel the government can deploy to this sensitive border region.”

The resort, Aqua Sun, had no tourists present, only security guards. Why would Bedouins attack a resort where no tourists are present? To avoid the international community’s involvement and to garner the sympathy of the global population for Egypt’s problem with Israel. “Poor Egypt… They can’t even run their businesses in peace because of BAD Israel!”

Bedouins are Arabs and Arabs are Muslims who want Israel destroyed. The bloody Bedouins would not think twice when approached by the Muslim Brotherhood to perpetrate a situation that could be blamed on Israel. A true Bedouin raid would have happened when the resort was full of people and the risk for not paying the ransom higher. This is nothing more than a set up to have another reason to break the treaty with Israel.

There have been rumblings in the media every since Mubarak’s regime fell that the new Egyptian government wants to be at war with Israel instead of at peace. Egyptians have a history of  subterfuge. They are looking for anything to blame on Israel, even if it means they have to frame Israel. It is only an excuse for breaking the treaty and going to war.

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Incredible as it may seem, only a few news outlets are running this stunning news. That Obama will be expected to appear in court this Thursday to answer charges of elections and social security fraud has not caught the MSM’s attention? The Washington Post is the most notable site to carry the story along with the Sacramento Bee. None of the TV news outlets have peeped about it. These are not surprising since they are NWO organizations and Obama is their NWO puppet. What is surprising is lack of the story on alternate news sites like Drudge and Infowars.

This is only the second time in our history that a president has been required to appear in court and the first time ever for elections fraud. If Obama is found guilty in Georgia’s court, other states may follow suit to keep him off their ballots. Is that not pressing news!? Are we not in an election year!? Hello! Is there any intelligence in the world of news?

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For only the second time in the history of the United States, a man occupying the Oval Office has been subpoenaed to appear in court. Orly Taitz is reporting Georgia Judge Malahi has ruled in her favor after the 3 year battle over Obama’s eligibility to sit as President of the United States. Obama has been ordered to appear in court on Thursday, January 26, 2012 on charges of elections fraud and social security fraud.

Orly Taitz’s lawsuit against Obama is only one of many, but has succeeded where the others have not. According to the Washington Post, an “Obama campaign aide says any attempt to involve the president personally will fail and such complaints around the country have no merit”.

The decision pertains to Georgia’s primary only. It could be appealed or Obama could simply withdraw his name from the Georgia Democratic presidential primary in the event he is found guilty of the charges. Nonetheless, Obama must produce all the documents requested by Orly Taitz at the upcoming hearing.

Part of Obama’s legitimacy as President will be based on the precedent of Minor v Happerset presented by Attorney Van Irion. Obama will not be answering questions in this part of the court hearing.

Orly Taitz’s case against Barack Obama is “that he is using a forged birth certificate, stolen or fraudulently obtained Social Security number and that there is no evidence to believe that the last name he is using is legally his, due to the fact, that in his mother’s passport he goes under the name Soebarkah and in his school registration in Indonesia he went by the last name Soetoro. There is no evidence of legal change of name”. Obama will be expected to answer to Orly’s case.

At present, none of the mainstream media is running the story except for the Washington Post.

Will Obama appear in court? Who knows. But at least he knows we know he’s a fraud and that some people in high places just might agree!

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Hamas tells Abbas to end peace talks

…In retaliation for recent arrests of Palestinian legislators in Gaza. “The response to the arrest of Dr Aziz Dweik should be to end these failed and absurd negotiations,” said Haniya, referring to a round of informal Israeli-Palestinian talks in Jordan aimed at finding ways to jump-start the stalled peace process. This comes as Abbas is making his swing through Europe and a recent meeting with Germany’s Angela Merkel to praise the ongoing developing relationship between them. Abbas asked for Germany’s help against Israel in the peace talks since that country has such a stellar record dealing with the Jews. He told her the settlements are stopping his mouth from being helpful to the peace process. Poor thing. He just can’t say anything constructive (no pun intended) while Israel is building homes. Merkel warned that “time is pressing,” for peace talks to resume between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators. “The window of opportunity is not yet closed,” Merkel asserted. “The talks in Jordan are still going on. We want to help them achieve a result,” she added. Germany is pledged to support the PA with 42.5 Million Euros. Abbas met with Russia’s Medvedev, too. “I see this as a symbol of Russian-Palestinian friendship, which stretches back not decades but centuries,” Medvedev said. Israel’s friend, the Netherlands, for its part, told Netanyahu at the end of his visit to give Abbas his binky and stop settlement building! Such wonderful friends are the Nethers…

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Q: Doctor, I’ve heard that cardiovascular exercise can prolong life. Is this true? 
A: Heart only good for so many beats, and that it… Don’t waste on exercise. Everything wear out eventually. Speeding up heart not make you live longer; it like saying you extend life of car by driving faster. Want to live longer? Take nap.

Q: Should I reduce my alcohol intake?
A: Oh no. Wine made from fruit. Brandy distilled wine, that mean they take water out of fruity bit so you get even more of goodness that way. Beer also made of grain. Bottom up!

Q: How can I calculate my body/fat ratio? 
A: Well, if you have body and you have fat, your ratio one to one. If you have two body, your ratio two to one.

Q: What are some of the advantages of participating in a regular exercise program? 
A: Can’t think of single one, sorry. My philosophy: No pain…good!

Q: Aren’t fried foods bad for you?
A: YOU NOT LISTENING! Food fried in vegetable oil. How getting more vegetable be bad?

Q : Will sit-ups help prevent me from getting a little soft around the middle? 
A: Oh no! When you exercise muscle, it get bigger. You should only be doing sit-up if you want bigger stomach.

Q: Is chocolate bad for me? 
A: You crazy?!? HEL-LO-O!! Cocoa bean! Another vegetable! It best feel-good food around!

Q: Is swimming good for your figure? 
A: If swimming good for figure, explain whale to me.

Q: Is getting in shape important for my lifestyle? 
A: Hey! ‘Round’ is shape!

Well… I hope this has cleared up any misconceptions you may have had about food and diets.

And remember:
Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways – Chardonnay in one hand – chocolate in the other – body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming “WOO-HOO, what a ride!!”

AND…..

For those of you who watch what you eat, here’s the final word on nutrition and health. It’s a relief to know the truth after all those conflicting nutritional studies.

1. The Japanese eat very little fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.

2. The Mexicans eat a lot of fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.

3. The Chinese drink very little red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.

4. The Italians drink a lot of red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans…

5. The Germans drink a lot of beer and eat lots of sausages and fats and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.

CONCLUSION: Eat and drink what you like. Speaking American is apparently what kills you.

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