Middle East Update

China unlikely to support stiffer UN sacntions
Urging Beijing to “think about the grave implications” of a nuclear Iran, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni wrapped up her diplomatic junket to China on Tuesday October 30, but appears to have failed to persuade the permanent member of the UN Security Council to support stiffer sanctions against Iran’s renegade nuclear program

by Hana Levi Julian
IDF troops attacked terrorist strongholds in southern Gaza Sunday night October 28, killing one Hamas terrorist in fierce fighting near the Sufa Crossing.

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Hamas is plotting to take over the West Bank from the Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority with the help of outsiders, PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas warned on Sunday October 28, in an apparent reference to Iran and its proxies.

by Hana Levi Julian
Jews arrived at the Yad Yair synagogue for morning prayers on Friday to the horrific site of Torah scrolls and holy books consumed in a blaze that destroyed the building.

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The U.S, THAAD anti missile missile passed its 4 th test recently, again proving it can intercept a missile outside the earths atmosphere, on October 26. Washington ’sources’ suggest USA will provide Israel with the system in 2009 or maybe parts of the system may be integrated into the Arrow Anti-Missile system.

Russian news agency Novosti reported that Iran has signed a deal with China for the purchase of 24 J-10 fighter jets by the year 2010. These design of the jets were based on the technology of Israel’s Lavi fighter jet, which was sold to China against US wishes. The J-10 has a range of 2,940 kilometer, which would bring it within range of Israel.

Washington has imposed new sanctions on more than 20 Iranian companies, banks and individuals, as well as the defense ministry in an effort to stop Tehran’s renegade nuclear program and curb “terrorism activities.” The sanctions target Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), its Ministry of Defense, Armed Forces Logistics, and Quds Force, all of whom the US considers propagators of terrorism funded the country’s oil and gas industry.

The IDF shot and killed two militants of Hamas’ military wing, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, in the southern Gaza city of Absan on Thursday October 25.

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Reacting to recent archaeological discoveries on the Temple Mount which date back to the First Temple period, Sheikh Ekrema Sabri, the former mufti of Jerusalem, stated,

“There was never a Jewish temple on Al-Aqsa [the Temple Mount area] and there is no proof that there was ever a temple. The [Western] wall is not part of the Jewish temple. It is just the western wall of the mosque.”

Islamic leaders were not always so certain. The Supreme Muslim Council in 1930 wrote that the Temple Mount’s “sanctity dates from earliest times. Its identity with the site of Solomon’s Temple is beyond dispute.” (Jerusalem Post)

Syria supplying Shi’ite militia with weapons
A new report to the United Nations Security Council on southern Lebanon shows that Hizbullah has “rebuilt and even increased its military capacity,” to a level higher than before the Second Lebanon War.