GPL M/ EAST UPDATES FROM . NOV 21.. NO. 144

IRAN SAID TO HAVE NUCLEAR FUEL FOR ONE WEAPON : (New York Times)
Iran has now produced enough nuclear material to make, with added purification, a single atom bomb, according to nuclear experts analyzing the latest report from global atomic inspectors

US REMOVED 550 TONS OF NUCLEAR PRECURSOR FROM IRAQ - Carter Andress (Washington Times)
A few months ago the U.S. military removed from Iraq 550 metric tons of yellowcake uranium, a necessary precursor to the development of nuclear weapons. With this radioactive material, all that was needed to create up to 140 nuclear bombs was the centrifuge equipment Pakistan stole from Europe and then re-exported to Libya and Iran.

U.S. ARRESTS IRANIAN ARMS AGENT IN IRAQ : (AP)
The U.S. military said Wednesday November 19, it had arrested a senior member of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards’ elite Quds force suspected of funneling weapons into Iraq. The suspect was using a job repairing religious sites as a cover to smuggle weapons into Iraq in shipments of building materials.

ISRAEL LAUNCHES ARABIC ‘YOU TUBE’ CHANNEL TO BYPASS ARAB MEDIA :- Yoav Stern
The Israeli Foreign Ministry has launched a YouTube channel in Arabic to bypass Arab media and give Israel’s version of current events directly to Arab viewers.

AL-QAEDA DECLARES WAR ON OBAMA : - Judith Miller
Al-Qaeda has officially added President-elect Barack Obama to its enemies list. In a new video message, Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qaeda’s number two, calls Obama a “House Negro” who “claims” to be Christian.

OLMERT AND BARAK ON SECRET VISIT TO JORDAN :
Prime Minister Olmert and Defense Minister Barak paid a secret visit to King Abdullah in Jordan Tuesday November 18, Israel Radio reported Thursday. They told the king that Israel could not sit back for long while Gaza militants continued to fire rockets and mortars at Israel. (Ha’aretz)

OBAMA TELLS ABBAS HE WILL SPARE NO EFFORT TO FACILITATE MID-EAST PEACE: - Anshel Pfeffer
Palestinian peace negotiator Saeb Erekat said U.S. President-elect Barack Obama called Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday November 18, and told him that he would spare no effort to facilitate a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians. (Ha’aretz)

PERES FETED ON STATE VISIT TO BRITAIN:
Touts Arab League peace plan
Israeli President Shimon Peres is winding up a most eventful state visit to London this week, lecturing before a packed audience of admirers (and detractors) at Oxford, addressing the British Parliament, being knighted by the Queen, and dining at 10 Downing Street.

KING HEROD’S FAMILY TOMB DISCOVERED :
Israeli archaeologists reported Wednesday that a dig at the flat-topped hill Herodium just south of Jerusalem has yielded new discoveries that include what they believe to be the 2000 year-old remains of
tombs belonging to Herod the Great’s wife and daughter-in-law. The Roman appointed King ruled Judea from 37 BC until his death in 4 BC, greatly expanding the Second Temple

HANIYEH DECLARES ALL GAZA MILITANTS COMMITTED TO ‘TRUCE’ :
Hamas leader in Gaza Ismail Haniyeh insisted on Friday November 21, that all the armed Palestinian factions in the Strip are committed to the ‘calm’ with Israel, just hours after a rocket squad fired another Kassam and two mortar shells into the western Negev.

RUSSIA DECLINES SYRIAN OFFER TO BUY MISSILE SYSTEM :
Syrian President Bashar Assad was informed this week that Moscow will not sell the cutting-edge Iskander missile system to foreign clients. The Russian news agency Novosti cited production delays and Moscow’s desire to fully equip its own army before allowing the sale of the weapon to other states.

THE PALACE OF DAVID : PBS-NOVA)
Israeli archeologist Eilat Mazar has released news of some of the remarkable ruins her team has uncovered in the City of David in Jerusalem, which seem undoubtedly to be part of King David’s Palace.

USA INTELLIGENCE EXPECTS AL-QAEDA’S APPEAL TO FALTER : - Scott Shane (New York Times)
A new study by American intelligence agencies suggests that al-Qaeda could soon be on the decline, having alienated Muslim supporters with indiscriminate killing

TURKEY TO INVEST $12 BILLION IN IRAN :
“Turkey will invest $12 billion on developing phases of the South Pars offshore gas field in southern Iran and construction of a gas pipeline from Assalouyeh to the Turkish border,” Turkish Energy Minister Hilmi Guler said Wednesday November 19.. Iran will pipe the gas to Europe through Turkey.

ISRAELI DEVELOPED BLOOD TEST CAN DETECT COLON CANCER : (UPI)
An Israeli researcher says he has developed a simple early-warning, painless and inexpensive blood test to detect colon cancer. Nadir Arber, a professor of medicine and gastroenterology at Tel Aviv University’s Sackler Faculty of Medicine, said the test can detect cells of colon polyps - the precursors to colon cancer - in the blood, with a very high degree of sensitivity and accuracy.

ISRAEL DEMANDS WORLD STOP IGNORING ATTACKS FROM GAZA :
Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni demanded in a telephone conversation with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday that the world stop ignoring attacks on Israel by Gaza militants. Livni “demanded that the international community stop applying a policy of ignoring acts of terror aimed at hurting innocent people,” her office said in a statement.

HIZBULLAH DISPUTES LEGITIMACY OF ISRAEL-LEBANON INTERNATIONAL BORDER :
Recently, Hizbullah international relations official Nawaf al-Moussawi again raised the issue of the so-called “seven villages,” disputing the legitimacy of the Israel-Lebanon international border and the “blue line” (the line agreed upon by the UN and Israel following the IDF’s pullout from the security zone on May 23, 2000). The seven villages were Shi’ite villages abandoned during Israel’s War of Independence (1948). They were situated inside Israeli territory, south of the international border, in areas populated now by Israeli villages.

MULTINATIONALS DISCOVER ISRAEL’S WEALTH OF HI-TECH TALENT : David Shamah
Large multinational companies have discovered that setting up shop in Israel - taking advantage of engineers, programmers, and even marketing and sales experts - is a wise move. Companies are expanding their research and development activities in Israel, and are doing business with Israeli firms on an unprecedented level.

INTERNATIONAL LAW AND THE DISPUTED TERRITORIES :- Melanie Phillips (Spectator-UK)
British Foreign Secretary David Miliband has urged enforcement of an EU boycott of produce from Israeli settlements in the West Bank, settlements he has called “illegal.”

IRAN MAY HEAD OLMERT-BUSH AGENDA : by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
Outgoing P MEhud Olmert left Israel Saturday November 22, for talks with the present and future American presidents. The announced agenda is negotiations with the P A, but a possible attack on Iran’s nuclear site may be the main topic of the summit. “The prospect of Israel taking preemptive military action to knock out Iran’s nuclear facilities appears to have become significantly more likely in recent weeks,” according to intelligence sources quoted by the Times. “Such an operation would require at least tacit US cooperation because it would almost certainly involve Israeli warplanes flying through US-controlled airspace in Iraq.”

US AND IRAN MAY SUPPLY MILITARY AID TO LEBANON :
In a bid to strengthen the Lebanese army, Beirut is currently entertaining bids for military supplies from an array of sources that include the US, France and even Iran. Reports over the weekend indicated Israel is concerned that the US is planning to deliver dozens of M60 main battle tanks with advanced firepower and mobility to the Lebanese army starting next year.

IRAN HANGS ACCUSED ‘ISRAELI SPY’ :
An Iranian businessman accused of spying for Israel was hanged in Teheran on Monday, adding to the already high tensions between the two countries.

ISRAEL’S NSC : CEDING GOLAN WORTH DEAL WITH SYRIA:
A report compiled by the Israeli National Security Council, under the direction of P M Olmert, recommends that Jerusalem pursue negotiations with Syria in 2009 in an effort to counteract threats from Iran and Hamas. A senior Israeli official, was quoted as saying that ceding the strategic Golan Heights to Syria would not be “too high a price to pay” if Damascus would cut all ties with the terrorist militias of Hamas and Hizbullah, as well as detach itself from Iran.

FINANCIAL CRISIS DRIVING ISRAELIS IN THE US, BACK HOME :
Israeli consulates located in North America have reported an influx of requests by Israeli citizens living in the US, asking for help in getting back to Israel. The desire to return is thought to be directly related to the current global financial crisis and the dashing of their dreams of great success in America.

IRAN RECEIVES AL-QAEDA PRAISE FOR ROLE IN TERRORIST ATTACKS - Con Coughlin (Telegraph)
Fresh links between Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and al-Qaeda have been uncovered following interception of a letter from the terrorist leadership that hails Tehran’s support for a recent attack on the American embassy in Yemen, which killed 16 people. The letter exposed the rising role of Saad bin Laden, son of Osama, as an intermediary between al-Qaeda and Iran. Saad has been living in Iran since the fall of the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2001.

TERROR MASTER-MIND KILLED IN U.S. MISSILE STRIKE IN PAKISTAN: - (Washington Post)
Rashid Rauf, a suspected al-Qaeda operative linked to a 2006 plot to blow up British airliners, was killed Saturday November 22, in a U.S. missile strike in northwestern Pakistan. Rauf, a former resident of Birmingham, UK, was suspected to be the ringleader in an alleged al-Qaeda plot to blow up ten commercial jetliners flying from Britain to the U.S.

LONDON CONCERT TO FEATURE ANTI-ISRAEL CHRISTMAS CAROLS : - Jonathan Petre (Daily Mail-UK
Anti-Israeli campaigners organizing a Christmas carol concert to be held on Wednesday November 19, at St. James Church in London have been condemned for rewriting traditional verses to attack Israel.

CANDIDATE FOR U.S. NAT. SECURITY ADVISER: NATO FORCE IN WEST BANK: - Aluf Benn
Gen. James Jones, who is expected to become Obama’s national security adviser, supports the deployment of an international force in the West Bank instead of the Israel Defense Forces. He also opposes Israel’s demand to retain extensive security control over the territories even after a Palestinian state is established.

HIZBUILLAH HOLDS MILITARY EXERCISES IN SOUTHER LEBANON: - Roee Nahmias
Hizbullah troops conducted a series of military maneuvers in southern Lebanon on Saturday November 22, the Al-Arabiya television network reported. The exercises were carried out in defiance of UN Resolution 1701, which determined that the region south of the Litani River would be demilitarized. (Ynet News)

THE FAILURE OF THE IRANIAN REVOLUTION : - Hossein Askari
Since the Iranian Revolution of 1979, average real per capita income has declined and income distribution has deteriorated. There is a new super class of rich mullahs and cronies who have amassed fortunes through corruption and government policies. The regime has not created wealth, but has distributed oil revenues to make the chosen very rich while keeping a lid on domestic dissension.

KILLING AHMADINEJAD IS AN OPTION : by Gil Ronen
Moshe “Boogie” Ya’alon, a likely candidate for Defense Minister under a Likud-run government, was quoted by an Australian newspaper this week as saying that the option of assassinating Iranian Pres Ahmadinejad must be considered. “We have to confront the Iranian revolution immediately,” Ya’alon said in an interview with The Sydney Morning Herald. “There is no way to stabilize the Middle East today without defeating the Iranian regime. The Iranian nuclear program must be stopped.”

MUSLIM HATE WORSE THAN NAZIS : by Aviva Woolf
Nonie Darwish, the founder of Arabs for Israel, says that the hatred the Muslims have for Jews is even worse than the hatred the Nazis had for them. “It isn’t a societal thing, it’s a religious thing,” she explains. “It’s intrinsic to their lives because it isn’t a human command to kill Jews, it’s the word of Allah.” In an interview with Israel National News’ Ari Abramowitz and Jeremy Gimpel, the activist and author Darwish explains that it is Muslim teaching to kill non-believers in Allah, and that adherents of any other monotheistic religion must become second class citizens.

OLMERT VOWS TO PRESS ON WITH ‘PEACEMAKING’ :
As Israel’s outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert wrapped up his last official visit to Washington on Tuesday, he insisted that he still enjoys a mandate to make concessions on core issues in talks with Palestinian leaders, despite his status at the head of a caretaker government. “In principle there is nothing to prevent us from reaching an agreement on the core issues in the near future,” Olmert said.” It would be good for the State of Israel… You don’t need months to make a decision.” Both men agreed that the two-state vision remains the preferable solution for the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. “We strongly believe that Israel will benefit by having a Palestinian state, a democracy on its border that works for peace,” said President Bush.

HIZBULLAH PAYS PALESTINIANS TERRORISTS TO ATTACK ISREAL :
Lebanese terror militia claim to have 42,000 missiles
The Lebanese Shi’ite terror militia Hizbullah has reportedly paid tens of thousands of dollars to Palestinian militants, directing them to carry out attacks on the Jewish state in retaliation for the February assassination of the group’s terrorist mastermind, Imad Mughniyeh.

US URGES ISRAELI REFRAIN FROM ATTACKING IRAN OR GAZA :
The US has requested that Israel refrain from embarking on any large-scale operations against Iran or Hamas-ruled Gaza during the last weeks of the Bush administration, Time magazine reported Monday November 24. The publication quotes an unnamed Israeli source at the Defense Ministry as saying, “We have been warned off.” The appeal comes at a time when tensions between Israel and lran are reaching new highs.

TOP U.N. OFFICIAL ACCUSES ISRAEL OF APARTHEID :
United Nations Gen Assly. Pres. Brockmann called for “concrete action” against Israel on Monday November 24, saying that the country’s treatment of the Palestinians was like that of the South African apartheid regime. The Nicaraguan diplomat said that the international community should consider actions to punish the Jewish state including “boycott, divestment and sanctions.” Israeli ambassador to the UN Gabriela Shalev called Brockman an “Israel hater” in September, when the Catholic priest-turned-diplomat hugged Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad after he delivered an anti-Israel, anti-Semitic tirade at the UN’s Opening Assembly. Other verbal assaults against Israel are expected as the UN marks its annual Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People

U.S. MISSILE TRACKING RADAR IN ISRAEL TO BE OPERATIONAL BY MID-DECEMBER: - John Vandiver (Stars and Stripes)
The U.S. radar recently deployed to Israel to help it defend against a potential missile attack from Iran is in the midst of final tests and should be operational by mid-December, said Maj. Bryan Woods, a spokesman for the U.S. military team in Israel. The radar is reported to be capable of tracking a baseball-size object from a distance of 2,900 miles. It will help Israel to more rapidly activate its missile defense system in the event of an attack

PERES SLAMS UK LAW JEOPARDISING IDF OFFICERS : - Jonny Paul
President Shimon Peres met with British Foreign Minister David Miliband last Thursday November 20, and expressed Israel’s displeasure over the Universal Jurisdiction law, which has been exploited by pro-Palestinian activists to try to arrest former IDF personnel on “war crimes” charges when they visit the UK.

A DISARMEND PALESTINIAN STATE : - Amitai Etzioni (Jerusalem Post)
During an off-the-record meeting in Washington on Nov. 10, one of Obama’s senior foreign policy advisers stated that pushing a two-state solution on Israel and the Palestinians had to take place with great urgency. One element of the plan the U.S. was to push involved a disarmed Palestinian state with U.S. or NATO troops stationed along the Jordan River.