Wenn Israel eine militärische Operation gegen den Gazastreifen durchführte, dann war es üblich, dass ägyptische Regierungsvertreter hinter den Kulissen arbeiteten, um so schnell wie möglich einen Waffenstillstand zu verhandeln, aber es vermieden, öffentlich irgendwelche kritischen Äußerungen über Israels Krieg zu machen. Seit der Revolution haben sich die Dinge geändert.

Am 29. November will Präsident Mahmud Abbas in der UN-Vollversammlung den Beobachterstatus für Palästina beantragen. Wie erfolgversprechend ist der Vorstoß?

Zuvor hatte Abbas in Gesprächen mit Außenminister Didier Burkhalter und Regierungschefin Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf um Unterstützung der Schweiz für den Antrag der Palästinenser geworben, bei den UN einen Beobachterstatus als Staat zu erhalten.

It is worth looking at the question of what difference the victory of President Barack Obama over Republican candidate Mitt Romney in Tuesday‘s elections makes

It appears as though Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tweeted at President Obama thanking him for his “unequivocal clear sided” support of Israel’s right to defend itself, then promptly deleted the message. (…)

The Obama administration has so far come out strongly in support of Israel throughout the conflict, with the White House saying Thursday that it was up to Hamas to “de-escalate” and halt its “cowardly” rocket attacks.

Initially, the CIA understood that terrorists were involved in the Benghazi attack, and their reporting said so. However, the reporting was changed to remove, or at the very least water down, references to the involvement of terrorists, i.e., a regional Al Qaeda branch and the militant Ansar al-Sharia. Neither Clapper nor Morell could explain today why this change was made.

At the same time, some Democrats have begun to draw comparisons between the exposure of an adulterous affair by Petraeus and the bureau‘s history of digging up dirt on Washington officials during the tenure of founding FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover.

„We don‘t want to return to those days,“ said Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., a member of the House intelligence committee and a former federal prosecutor.

Senator Chuck Grassley, Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which has oversight jurisdiction of the FBI, is pressing Attorney General Eric Holder and FBI Director Robert Mueller for details about the roles of the Department of Justice and the FBI in the investigation that revealed an extramarital affair by the former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, General David Petraeus.

King said: „It is still not clear how the final talking points emerged. He [Petraues] said it went through a long process involving many agencies including the Justice Department and including the State Department.

According to news reports, President Obama maintains a list of alleged militants to be assassinated. Some are US citizens. None will get to plead his case. The president tells us to trust that this is all perfectly legal and constitutional, even though Congress is not allowed to see any legal justification.

„When he looks at what Susan Rice said, here is what Petraeus‘ take is, according to my source. Petraeus developed some talking points laying it all out. Those talking points, as always, were approved by the intelligence community. But then he sees Susan Rice make her statements and he sees input from other areas of the administration. Petraeus presume — it is believed — will tell the committee he is not certain where Susan Rice got all of her information. It looks like the business about the video got disproved in the intelligence community at the highest levels — finally disproved after the fact.“

Five days after the attack, the administration sent UN ambassador Susan Rice on the Sunday news shows to describe it as a spontaneous protest. Rice relied on initial intelligence that proved incorrect, and she is now under attack by some Republican senators who vow to block her if she‘s nominated as secretary of state when Hillary Clinton steps down.

Petraeus told lawmakers he wasn’t sure which agency replaced the groups’ names with the word “extremist” in the final draft. But he said he allowed other agencies to alter the talking points as they saw fit without asking for final review, to get them out quickly.

„No one knows yet exactly who came up with the final version of the talking points,“ he said. (…)
Further, King said a CIA analyst specifically told lawmakers that the Al Qaeda affiliates line „was taken out.“ (…)
Fox News was told that neither Clapper nor Morell knew for sure who finalized that information.

The original CIA talking points regarding the attack on Benghazi clearly attributed the incident to al Qaeda affiliates, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Peter King said this morning after a closed door briefing with former CIA Director David Petraeus.

After being vetted by several different agencies, however, that emphasis was removed.

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.

Die Zahl der Todesopfer seit Mittwoch liegt bei 25. Israelischen Angaben zufolge sind seit Mittwoch bei israelischen Luftangriffen 22 Palästinenser, darunter acht Kinder und eine schwangere Frau, ums Leben gekommen. Mindestens 235 Menschen wurden verletzt

Genug ist genug, dieser Kriegswahnsinn muss aufhören. Lasst uns ein Zeichen setzen. Auf beiden Seiten muss Schluss sein mit Waffengewalt. Wir fordern sowohl Israel als auch die Hamas auf die Waffen niederzulegen. Diese Veranstaltung distanziert sich klar von Antisemitismus und Rassismus und auch Fanatismus.

Der ägyptische Präsident Mohammed Mursi hat die israelischen Luftangriffe auf den Gazastreifen als „unverhüllten Angriff auf die Menschlichkeit“ verurteilt. Ägypten werde die Palästinenser in dieser Lage nicht im Stich lassen, sagte Mursi nach Angaben der staatlichen Nachrichtenagentur Mena.

Die Parallelen liegen auf der Hand: Vor vier Jahren – wenige Wochen vor den israelischen Parlamentswahlen – startete die Regierung in Jerusalem im Gazastreifen die Militäroffensive „Gegossenes Blei“. Damals starben 1400 Palästinenser, Israel beklagte 13 Opfer. Im Jänner stehen wieder Wahlen vor der Tür. Und seit Mittwoch gibt es erneut eine Militäraktion in Gaza.

The United Nations says a teacher who worked for a relief agency was killed in Gaza by Israeli air strikes.

„Wenn etwas auf dem Gebiet der Raketenabwehr unerwünscht erfolgt, und wir dabei keine Vereinbarung treffen, so wäre es unsererseits verantwortungslos, keine entsprechenden Maßnahmen auf dem Gebiet der Offensivwaffen zu ergreifen, die Gegenstand des START-Nachfolgevertrages sind“, sagte er in einem Interview mit dem englischsprachigen TV-Sender Russia Today.

Gaza’s Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, right, and Egyptian Prime Minister Hesham Kandil, left, wave to the crowd as they meet in Gaza City, Friday, Nov. 16, 2012. Israel offered to suspend its offensive in the Gaza

„Ägypten wird sich um die Einstellung der Aggression und die Herbeiführung von Frieden sowie darum bemühen, dass das palästinensische Volk einen eigenen Staat erlangt (…) Wir sind mit Euch!“, sagte der ägyptische Regierungschef.

Palestine‘s envoy to Bahrain has called on the Arab League and the UN to step in to end the Israeli assault on Gaza – which saw more than 250 air strikes since it was launched on Wednesday.

(15.11.) No further council meetings are immediately planned on the matter.

Today, the name of “Fuchtel” is in all Greeks’ mouth. Even though the name is a tongue-twister for the locals here.

It‘s been a difficult day for John McCain. First it was revealed that he had been too busy holding press conferences demanding answers from officials into the events in Benghazi to attend briefings from officials into the events in Benghazi.

There has been a trend in recent years of Palestinian permanent residents of East Jerusalem applying for – and getting – Israeli citizenship. Will this trend provide freedom, or further fragment Palestinian national identity?

An Israeli peace activist has come forward with a blockbuster claim about the assassination of Hamas leader Ahmed Jabari that, if true, would represent a major twist in the recent escalation of conflicts between Israeli and Palestinian forces.

Gershon Baskin, who helped negotiate the release of Gilad Shalit — the Israeli soldier kidnapped by Hamas —told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that „this blood could have been spared. Those who made the decision must be judged by the voters, but to my regret they will get more votes because of this.“

(13.11.) The White House has said it was notified on Wednesday night that Petraeus might resign over an affair and that Obama was told Thursday morning.

(15.11.) Attorney General Eric Holder said on Thursday that the White House was not notified earlier about the investigation into former Gen. David Petraeus because the Justice Department determined there was no threat to national security.

“There isn’t a plan for every single engagement. Sometimes you have to be able to make adjustments. They made zero adjustments in this. They stood and they watched and our people died.”

(04.11.) The presence of laser capability on the roof of the CIA annex confirms what Fox News sources that night in Benghazi originally said, which is that they had laser capability and for 5 hours and 15 minutes were wondering where the usual overhead air support was, especially since, according to this source, they radioed from the annex beginning as early as midnight asking for it.

The CIA, however, requested none of that assistance. Neither did the State Department. None of those teams ever arrived in Benghazi.