MidnightWatcher's Blogspot

Witness the sad reality of a culture that glorifies death in the name of a Babylonian curse …

By Elior Levy, ynet – “Less than a week after the declaration of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, Operation Pillar of Defense has already left its mark on the people of Gaza, in a rather unexpected way.

Some parents from the Strip have decided to name their newborn babies after operation-affiliated icons – from assassinated Hamas commanders to long-range missiles fired at Israel.

Muhammad al-Shafi’i Abu Nassat named his son, who was born Friday, after the Fajr missile. Naming his baby Fajr, Abu Nassat told Gaza media, was his way of expressing his gratitude to Iran, which was responsible for supplying Gaza with rockets that, according to Abu Nassat ‘struck the enemy for eight days.’

Amira Abu Assus, from the northern Gaza Strip, also named her child Fajr, Arabic for ‘dawn’, and says she picked out the name even before she went into labor last week.

She said she knew that the unborn baby would have ‘a bright future within Palestinian resistance. He would carry the rockets whose names he bears so as to free Palestine from Israeli occupation.’

Adham Murtaja of Gaza City decided to name his son, born on Friday, after Ahmed Jabari, the Hamas military chief who was assassinated by the IDF at the onset of Operation Pillar of Defense.

Murtaja said he decided to name his child Ahmed Jabari to prove to Israel that the Jabari assassination did not mean that the Palestinian nation stopped producing heroes.” Read more.

Hamas: We Are Not Afraid Of Israel Because We Love Death

By AL ARABIYA – “A senior member of Egypt’s former militant Islamist group al-Gamaa al-Islamiya has warned that liberal politicians and intellectuals who oppose President Mohammed Mursi’s latest constitutional declaration could face a campaign of targeted assassinations starting from December.

Nageh Ibrahim, the ideologue of the Gamaa al-Islamiya, which took up arms against ousted president Hosni Mubarak’s regime in the 1980s, told Al Arabiya that his expectation ‘was based on an analysis of the political situation not on information.’

He said recent escalation of violence in different parts of the country, including successive attacks on security forces in Sinai, attacks on Muslim Brotherhood offices and on mosques, point to a possible bloody reaction against liberals.

Ibrahim first made his statement in an interview with the London-based Asharq al-Awsat, saying targeted assassinations against prominent liberals would be a ‘natural reaction’ to violence and mistrust, and political polarization in Egypt.

And while he supported President Mursi’s latest decrees to consolidate his powers by making his decisions irrevocable by the judiciary, Ibrahim called for the president to include more civil and liberal figures in his government and take their demands into consideration when making decisions.

‘Had the president included representatives of the civil powers in the new government, he would not have had so many enemies,’ Ibrahim said.

‘This has to be done before Egypt becomes divided, not only politically but possibly geographically as well.’

He warned that if Mursi backtracks on his decisions, the country would plunge further into turmoil.” Read more.

If the Euphrates River is dried up prior to Armageddon, closing a dam or two would be a pretty quick way to do it …

Revelation 16:12-16, “Then the sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up, so that the way of the kings from the east might be prepared… to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty… to the place called in Hebrew, Armageddon.”

By BASSEM MROUE, Orlando Sentinel – “BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian rebels on Monday captured a hydroelectric dam on the Euphrates River in the country’s north after days of heavy clashes, carting off boxes of ammunition from defeated regime forces in the latest in a string of recent strategic advances for opposition fighters, activists said.

Also Monday, activists said rebels and pro-government Kurdish gunmen struck a truce to end days of fighting in the town of Ras al-Ayn near the border with Turkey that opposition forces entered earlier this month.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said rebel fighters overran regime defenses and captured the Tishrin Dam, near the town of Manbij, before dawn Monday. Observatory director Rami Abdul-Rahman said the dam supplies several areas of Syria with electricity.

‘This is a major blow to the regime,’ said Abdul-Rahman by telephone, describing the dam as ‘strategic location’ on the Euphrates, which flows from Turkey through Syria and into Iraq.

The rebels have scored a series of hard-fought strategic advances recently, perhaps even seizing the momentum in their relentless battle of topple President Bashar Assad’s regime. On Sunday, they captured a regime helicopter base outside Damascus before pulling back for fear of government airstrikes.

Amateur videos posted online showed gunmen inside the dam’s operations room as an employee sat in front of five screens speaking by telephone about the level of water behind the dam. Another video showed gunman in front of dozens of green wooden boxes apparently full of munitions.

A gunman opened one of the boxes showing that it contained hand grenades. ‘The Free Syrian Army has fully liberated the Tishrin Dam,’ one of the rebels could be heard saying.

The activist videos appeared genuine and corresponded to other AP reporting about the events depicted. Syria restricts the access of reporters.” Read more.

All for peaceful purposes, no doubt …

By BENJAMIN WEINTHAL – “Anti-Israel demonstrators gathered on Friday in the heart of Vienna, protesting Israel’s Operation Pillar of Defense and chanting slogans calling for the murder of Jews and bashing the Jewish state.

Israel’s eight-day military operation to stop Hamas rocket fire from entering the country prompted two fiercely anti-Israel protests in the Austrian capital.

Samuel Laster, an Israeli journalist who lives in Vienna, told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday that he heard a contingent of 15 to 20 Austrian Islamists chanting in Arabic, ‘Death to the Jews.’

Laster first reported on the call to eliminate Jews on his website die juedische (‘the Jewish’).

Speaking from Vienna by phone, he told the Post that a ‘mix of Austrian leftist radical extremists and Islamists’ appeared at the protest. He estimated that at least 400 anti-Israel protesters, including Salafists, Muslim Brotherhood members and Palestinians, took part in the demonstration.

The demonstrators marched to the federal chancellor’s office.

The anti-Israel activists yelled ‘Freedom for Palestine’ and ‘Down with Israel,’ and a group of Austrian Muslims blasted repeatedly in Arabic ‘Death to the Jews.’ Laster said the Austrian authorities, including the domestic intelligence agency (Verfassungschutz), must increase their efforts to combat ‘Islamic extremism.’ He criticized the lax approach of Austrian police officials who waved off the anti-Jewish rhetoric as merely a protest against Israel.

Dr. Shimon Samuels, the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s director for international relations, wrote the Post by email on Sunday, ‘the Verfassungschutz, whether in Germany or Austria, has to make the analytical leap in treating the Trotskyite/jihadist movements as they did regarding Nazi and Communist espionage or terrorism.'” Read more.

Flashback: Austria: ‘Caliphate Conference’ Seeks to Islamize America and Europe, Make It An International Crime to Criticize Islam – “A Muslim fundamentalist group is organizing a conference focused on turning Austria and other European countries into Islamic states… The conference is being organized by Hizb ut-Tahrir [Party of Liberation], a pan-Islamic extremist group that seeks to establish a global Islamic state, or caliphate, ruled by Islamic Sharia law. Hizb ut-Tahrir — which is banned in many countries, including Germany, but is free to operate in Austria — is virulently opposed to Western capitalism and democracy and seeks to extend the future caliphate to Europe and the United States.” Read more.

Flashback: Austrian Muslim’s Message for Europe: Whether You Like It Or Not, ‘We are Coming’ – “A second-generation Muslim immigrant in Austria has authored a provocative new book in which he argues that Europe’s future is Turkish, whether Europeans like it or not. The book’s short, sharp and confrontational title says it all: ‘We are Coming.’ The thesis is: ‘Regardless of whether or not you [Europeans] like us [Turks], whether or not you integrate us, whether or not you want us in the European Union, our influence in Europe is growing. We are more numerous.” Read more.