MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

Concocted. Negligent. Narrow. This is CNN …

By Robert Spencer – “CNN takes it as a given that young Mahmoud Sadallah (Sadhala) was killed by an Israeli airstrike.

Only one problem: he was killed by a Hamas rocket that fell short in Gaza.

There is a lot of evidence for this. Read the New York Times’ account of his death:

The Abu Wardah family woke up on Friday morning to word that a hudna — Arabic for cease-fire — had been declared during the three-hour visit of the Egyptian prime minister to this embattled territory. So, after two days of huddling indoors to avoid intensifying Israeli air assaults, Abed Abu Wardah, the patriarch, went to the market to buy fruits and vegetables. His 22-year-old son, Aiman, took an empty blue canister to be refilled with cooking gas. The younger children of their neighborhood, Annazla, in this town north of Gaza City went out to the dirt alley to kick a soccer ball.But around 9:45 a.m., family members and neighbors said, an explosion  struck a doorway near the Abu Wardah home, killing Aiman Abu Wardah as he returned from his errand, as well as Mahmoud Sadallah, 4, who lived  next door and had refused his older cousin’s pleas to stay indoors.

It is unclear who was responsible for the strike on Annazla: the damage was nowhere near severe enough to have come from an Israeli F-16,raising the possibility that an errant missile fired by Palestinian militants was responsible for the deaths. What seems clear is that expectations for a pause in the fighting, for at least one family, were tragically misplaced.

The IDF did not launch any airstrikes in Gaza while Egyptian PM Kandil was in Gaza.

Read more.

The Telegraph: Four-Year Old Child Was Killed By Hamas Rocket, Not Israel – “… there were signs on Saturday that not all the Palestinian casualties have been the result of Israeli air strikes. The highly publicised death of four-year-old Mohammed Sadallah appeared to have been the result of a misfiring home-made rocket, not a bomb dropped by Israel. The child’s death on Friday figured prominently in media coverage after Hisham Kandil, the Egyptian prime minister, was filmed lifting his dead body out of an ambulance. ‘The boy, the martyr, whose blood is still on my hands and clothes, is something that we cannot keep silent about,’ he said, before promising to defend the Palestinian people.” Read more.

Click here to watch CNN’s report.

Zechariah 12:2, “Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of drunkenness to all the surrounding peoples, when they lay siege against Judah and Jerusalem.”

Joel 3:12, “Let the nations be wakened, and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat; For there I will sit to judge all the surrounding nations.”

By Richard Spencer, The Telegraph – “The central quandary of the Arab Spring was never lost on Israel. For years it held itself up as the only democracy in the Middle East, surrounded by vicious and anti-semitic dictatorships.

Now other countries are following suit, but in the turmoil of change life is becoming more dangerous, not less.

Israel’s Western allies were also quick to grasp this, tempering their enthusiasm for the political reforms which they had long promoted with caution as to the consequences; above all, now, in Syria where they are being dragged kicking and screaming into intervening on the rebels’ side.

But the surprise in western capitals at the imminent Gaza war is a sign that the real risk may have been overlooked. Last week saw not just the old battle between Israel’s defensiveness and militarism and the Arab world’s hostility and paranoia, but this time with a dash of popular feeling thrown in.

There is not, in fact, some overwhelming demand on the Egyptian street for the newly elected President Mohammed Morsi to take on Israel, despite what you might have read, even if it watches televised images of Gaza hospitals with as much horror as before.

Rather, what the Arab Spring has done is to change the strategic calculations of all the main players: Israel, Hamas, neighbours like Egypt and the Gulf’s small but rich new play-maker, Qatar. They all have different points to make from before.

Hamas is an off-shoot of the Muslim Brotherhood. However different they are, the bonds that unite its branches are strong and Hamas feels its time has come. Gaza is now part of a swathe of the Middle East where Islamists are leading politics, from Morocco to Iran.” Read more.

Flashback: NBC’s Engel ‘Worried’ About ‘Ferociously Anti-Israel’ Arab Street and Concludes ‘This Thing Ends in Jerusalem’

France24 – “The Israeli army is ready to ‘significantly expand’ its operation in Gaza, the country’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday as Hamas launched fresh rocket attacks on Tel Aviv.

Speaking at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting, Netanyahu said ‘The soldiers are ready for any activity that could take place’.

Netanyahu issued the warning as Israel’s ‘Iron Dome’ system intercepted two rockets aimed at Tel Aviv. Hamas militants admitted responsibility for the latest rocket attack on Israel’s commercial capital.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry told FRANCE24 that a ground offensive into Gaza was likely if the rocket attacks continued.

‘Our sole aim of this offensive is to make Hamas stop firing rockets. We have used air strikes but if that’s not enough then we may contemplate ground operations as well,’ Ygal Palmor from the Israeli foreign ministry told FRANCE 24 on Sunday.

‘If rockets are being fired then that will bring the ground operation forward,’ he added.

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman also said on Sunday that Israel would not negotiate a truce with the Gaza Strip’s Hamas rulers as long as rocket fire continues from the Palestinian enclave.

Israel’s operation has drawn Western support for what US and European leaders have called Israel’s right to self-defence, but there have also been a growing number of calls from world leaders to seek an end to the violence.” Read more.

In other words, don’t waste your time lobbing rockets at the Zionists in an effort to destroy Israel. Antichrist will unite the Ummah and do that for you when he comes …

By Chana Ya’ar, INN – “Turkish Islamic scholar Adnan Oktar is urging Gaza terrorist groups on his A9TV satellite television talk show to stop the rocket fire and instead focus on calling for the Messiah.

Oktar, based in Istanbul, is known for hosting colleagues of various other faiths, including numerous rabbis from Israel, Europe and the United States. He is active in interfaith affairs and has studied Judaic and Christian texts in addition to those of his own Muslim faith, a point for which radical Islamists have often vilified him — and sometimes even threatened him — around the world.

The Islamic scholar said last week in response to an article about Israel’s current Operation Pillar of Defense, detailing the IAF’s attacks on Gaza to silence the rocket fire against southern Israeli communities, ‘What Israel must do is constantly ask Allah for Moshiach, for the coming of the King Messiah. What Palestine must do is constantly ask Allah and strive for the Mahdi and Islamic Unity.

‘These rocket attacks and the like are totally stupid and pointless,’ he said. ‘They do nothing for five months and then suddenly decide to attack Israel and fire off 300 rockets. Where? At whom? What is your target? The rockets fall on the homes of innocent Israeli civilians. Where does that get you?’ he asked.

‘They then retaliate and hundreds or thousands of people are martyred, homes are bulldozed and children are martyred or injured. I fail to understand why they carry out such plans and why they want it. Who sets these things in motion in Palestine? And who goes along and regards these things as logical? I want to know. Have you never heard of peace, my brother?

‘There are the sons of Jacob there. Let them live in peace. And there are the sons of Ishmael. Leave them in peace, too. Sit down as brothers, break bread, talk… They can pray in the synagogues and you can pray in the mosques. But live in peace, my brothers. They insist on engaging in provocative actions. That is very, very wrong.'” Source – INN.

• Related: The Mark of the Beast – What Your Church May Not Be Telling You
• Related: How Can An Islamic Antichrist Present Himself As God And Receive Worship, Yet Remain A Servant Of ‘Allah’?

As Israel quickly runs out of time, it is looking more and more likely that 2013 will be the year that everything changes …

By JAY SOLOMON, The Wall Street Journel – “Iran has finished installing nearly 3,000 nuclear-fuel production machines at its underground military facility near the holy city of Qom, providing Tehran the capability to double its production of medium-enriched uranium in the coming months, a new report said.

These advances, outlined in a report on Iran by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations nuclear watchdog, could allow Tehran’s Islamist leaders to accumulate in as little as three to four months enough uranium enriched to 20% purity for one atomic weapon, according to nuclear experts.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has cited this level of nuclear-fuel production by Tehran as the ‘red line’ for when the Jewish state might launch military strikes against Iran’s nuclear facilities. Iran was likely to amass this stockpile of fissile material by next summer, Mr. Netanyahu estimated in a September speech at the U.N.

The installation of the nearly 3,000 centrifuge machines at Qom could allow it to reach this point much quicker, experts say, if the machines there and at a second nuclear-fuel site at the city of Natanz are utilized.

‘The number of centrifuges are steadily increasing, which diminishes the time for a breakout for a nuclear weapon in two ways,’ said Olli Heinonen, a former chief weapons inspector at the IAEA. ‘Iran’s inventories will increase as well as its pace of production.’ Tehran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes and denies it is pursuing bomb production.

Iran currently has a stockpile of 232 kilograms of 20% enriched uranium, or about 510 pounds, of which 96 kilograms has been detected for the production of fuel plates, according to the IAEA. Nuclear experts estimate that Iran would need 220 to 250 kilograms to produce one nuclear weapon.

They said Iran’s rate of quarterly production could grow to around 25 kilograms per month with the Qom facility fully operational.

To make a bomb, Iran would then need to convert this stockpile to weapons-grade levels, which is around 90% purity. It has the technology to do so, by reconfiguring centrifuges, in an additional few months, say experts.” Read more.

BY DANIEL HALPER – “Two major Israeli newspapers are reporting that rockets fired from Egypt have hit Israel.

‘Terrorists in the Sinai Peninsula launched rockets into Israel Friday night,’ reports the Jerusalem Post. ‘The rockets fell near an Israeli village on the southern border, causing some damage, but no injuries.’

The Israeli daily Haaretz reports, ‘Rockets fired from direction of Egypt toward Eshkol Regional Council.’

It appears no damage was reported in connection with the rocket fire from Egypt. Earlier today, the Egyptian prime minister visited Gaza to express solidarity with the Palestinians there.

This new front comes a day after a rocket landed near Tel Aviv and on the same day Israel’s capital Jerusalem was the target of rocket fire. Those attacks were courtesy of Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

‘After Tel Aviv metropolitan area, capital under fire too: An air raid siren was sounded in Jerusalem and surrounding communities early Friday evening. After residents reported hearing blast sounds, security forces confirmed that one rocket had landed in the Gush Etzion area near a Palestinian village,’ Ynet reports.

‘There were no reports of injuries or damage. This was the first air raid siren sounded in the area since the IDF launched Operation Pillar of Defense in the Gaza Strip. Air raid sirens were sounded in southern communities throughout the day and a barrage of missiles hit the area.'” Source – The Weekly Standard.

By REZA KAHLILI – “As the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas faction is escalating and rockets are hitting Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, Iran announced Friday that its missiles were being used against the Jewish state.

Rockets hit Tel Aviv Thursday for the first time since the 1991 Persian Gulf War when Iraqi scuds threatened the city. On Friday, Jerusalem also came under rocket fire from Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip.

According to a source in the Revolutionary Guards intelligence division, Iran has large stockpiles of chemical and microbial weapons and it has armed the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah with them. It also has Quds Forces in Gaza and other Palestinian territories to help Hamas and Islamic Jihad in setting up underground rocket facilities while training and supervising the Palestinians in launching attacks on Israel.

The escalation of the Gaza conflict was ordered by the highest authority in Iran, the source added, and rockets targeting Tel Aviv and Jerusalem are in fact a warning to Israel that its Iron Dome missile defense system cannot thwart Iran’s ballistic missiles and tens of thousands of rockets and missiles in the hands of Hezbollah.

On the day that the International Atomic Energy Agency announced that Iran is set to sharply expand its uranium enrichment in an underground site after installing all the centrifuges it was built for, the message was clear: An attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities will have destructive consequences for Israel.

The missiles fired by the Islamic Jihad that hit Tel Aviv were Iranian Fajr 5 missiles, according to the Islamic regime’s media outlet Nimrooz, which is close to Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the mayor of Tehran and a possible candidate for president.

The outlet cited a recent quote by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of the Islamic regime: ‘From now onward, we will support and help any nation, any groups fighting against the Zionist regime across the world, and we are not afraid of declaring this.’

The outlet said targeting the capital of the ‘Zionist regime’ with this advanced technology is a big victory for the Palestinians and the resistance front — Iran, Syria and Hezbollah.

It quoted anonymous military analysts that the Fajr 5 has the longest range compared to other missiles launched from Gaza and then warned that Israel should expect Read more…

Update: “The Israeli cabinet approved the request of Defense Minister Ehud Barak to call-up 75,000 additional reservists. The draft order is due to take effect within a few hours. During Operation Cast Lead, some 10,000 reservists were drafted and during the Second Lebanon War, some 60,000 reservists were drafted.” (Source).

Reuters – “JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Defence Minister Ehud Barak sought government approval on Friday to mobilize up to 75,000 reserve troops for Israel’s Gaza campaign, political sources said, in a sign of preparations for a possible ground offensive.

The sources, speaking after Palestinian rockets were fired at Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, said ministers were being polled by telephone by the cabinet secretary to approve the call-up.” Source – Yahoo! News.

Hamas Recycles Pictures of Syrian Dead, Fake Casualties For Camera – “We’ll have more on the PR war being waged on both Twitter and Facebook later, but for now, a disturbing update about Hamas, which is using pictures of children that have been injured or killed in Syria and sending them out through social media to show them as Palestinian dead. Hamas, Hezbollah, and their ilk have long used images of children as a cudgel to portray Israelis as a wanton murderers of children, even as the IDF remains the only force that doesn’t target civilians. I doubt this is the last we’ll see of it.” Source – Tablet.