Global slowdown, austerity to constrain UK economy - BCC

Global slowdown, austerity to constrain UK economy - BCC

By Jonathan Cable | Reuters –

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's economic growth in the next two years will be weaker than
previously thought, held back by a global slowdown and domestic austerity measures, the British
Chambers of Commerce (BCC) said on Tuesday.

The BCC revised down its gross domestic product (GDP) growth forecasts for 2013 and 2014
to 1.0 and 1.8 percent respectively from 1.2 and 2.2 percent, also citing weak household
consumption.

Economists polled by Reuters last month predicted similar rates of growth and the BCC report
will provide gloomy reading for chancellor George Osborne the day before he presents a half-
yearly budget statement to parliament.

"We expect quarterly growth to increase gradually over the next two years, but we have to accept
that it will remain modest and below trend for some time," said BCC Chief Economist David
Kern.

"Although there will be a slow improvement over the medium term, GDP will only return to its
pre-recession levels at the end of 2014."

After two recessions in four years, Britain bounced back to growth in the last quarter, helped by
extra working days and London's hosting of the Olympic Games. But analysts reckon the
economy will expand by a far lower 0.1 percent in the current quarter and will barely pick up in
the year ahead.

The recovery has been hampered by a protracted debt crisis in the euro zone, Britain's main
trading partner, as well as by the government's debt-cutting plans.

Osborne said on Sunday that it was taking longer than hoped to deal with Britain's debts, but
insisted he would stick with the programme when he delivers what is known as the Autumn
Statement on Wednesday.

However, the BCC said the government also needed to support growth, job creation, exports,
investment, and business confidence.

"The fact remains that growth is still too weak. We are calling for decisive action in the Autumn
Statement. Business wants a hybrid strategy that delivers both deficit reduction and (economic)
growth," said John Longworth, BCC Director General.

Public sector net borrowing in the 2012-13 year will be 104.1 billion pounds, the BCC said,
around 12 billion higher than the Office for Budget Responsibility, an independent fiscal
forecasting body, predicted in March.

The trade group, representing firms employing more than one in five private-sector workers in
Britain, said unemployment was likely to peak at around 8.1 percent in the final months of next
year partly due to job losses in the public sector.

It also revised up its inflation forecasts for this year and next.

(Editing by Ruth Pitchford)
 

தமிழீழ தேசியப் பிரச்சனை விவசாயப் பிரச்சனையே! சிறீதரன் பா.உ மீதான விமர்சனம்.



 

`வீட்டுப்பாடம் செய்து விட்டு` முறையான முன் தயாரிப்புடன் சிறீதரன் பா.உ.அவர்கள் சபையில் உரையாற்றியிருப்பது மிகவும் வரவேற்கத்தக்கது. அவர் உரையின் முக்கிய பகுதி கிளிநொச்சி, யாழ்ப்பாணக் குடாநாடு, தீவகற்ப விவசாயிகளின் நீர்ப்பிரச்சனை சம்பந்தமானதாகும்.இது குறித்து அவர் நிறைய விபரங்களுடனும் சிங்களத்தின் திட்டத்துக்கு மாற்றாக உண்மையில் கடைப்பிடிக்க வேண்டிய மாற்றுத்திட்டத்தையும் முன் மொழிந்து ஒரு ஆக்கபூர்வமான உரையாற்றியுள்ளார்.

 

எனினும் இப்பிரச்சனையின் கோட்பாட்டு அடிப்படையை பா.உ சற்றேனும் கிரகித்துக்கொள்ள முயலவில்லை.இதிலிருந்துதான் அவருடைய ‘நல்லிணக்கம்`, மற்றும் தென்னாபிரிக்கா, பாலஸ்தீனம் போல் `ஐ.நா.தமிழீழம்` அமையும் என்ற அபத்தமான கற்பனைகளும், கட்டுக் கதைகளும் பிறக்கின்றன.

 

சீறிதரன் பா.உ ஒரு ஊக்கமுள்ள மனிதராகத் தோன்றுகிறார்.மக்கள் பிரச்சனைக்கு உள்ளாகிற எல்லாச் சந்தர்ப்பங்களிலும் மக்களோடு மக்களாக நிற்கிறார்.மீள்குடியேற்றப் பிரச்சனையில் அவர் துணிந்து போராடினார். இதனால் அவருக்கு உயிராபத்தும் உண்டு.இருந்தும் அவர் அஞ்சவில்லை துஞ்சவில்லை.ஒரு நல்ல மக்கள் தொண்டனாக செயல்பட முனைகின்றார். இதனால் ஈழத்தமிழர்களின் குரலாக மாறிவருகின்றார். உள்நாட்டு ஊடகங்களும் சர்வதேச ஊடங்கங்களும் அவரூடாக ஈழத்தமிழர் நிலையை அறிய முயலுகின்றனர்.எனவே அவருடைய பார்வை அல்லது நோக்கு நிலை நின்று அவர் பேசுகின்ற விடயங்கள் ஈழத்தமிழர் வாழ்வின் மீது பாதிப்புச் செலுத்துவனவாய் உள்ளன.விரும்பியோ விரும்பாமலோ இப்படி ஒரு பாரிய பொறுப்பை அவர் சுமக்கின்றார்.இதனால் அவரது நன்முயற்சிகள் அனைத்தையும் வரவேற்கும் அதேவேளை அவர் தொடர்ந்து பிரச்சாரப்படுத்தி வருகின்ற போலியான பொய்யான மாயையான இந்த ஐ.நா.வுடன் அவருக்குள்ள தீராக் காதலைப் பற்றிய விமர்சனம் இக்குறிப்பாகும்.

 

கிளிநொச்சி விவசாயிகளின் நீர்ப்பிரச்சனை தீர்க்கப்படாதுள்ளபோது, யாழ்க்குடாவுக்கு ஆனையிறவு நன்னீர் திட்ட வாய்ப்பு உள்ளபோது கிளிநொச்சி விவசாயிகளுக்கு பற்றாக்குறையாகவுள்ள நீரை யாழ்ப்பாணத்துக்கு பகிர்ந்தளிப்பது, மாங்குளம் ஒரு மாநகரமாக மாற்றப்படவிருப்பது, (இது திட்டமிட்ட இராணுவக் குடியேற்ற நகரமாகவே அமையும் என்பதை பா.உ. வெளிப்படையாகக் கூறவில்லை) இந்த மெய்விபரங்கள் விளக்குவது என்னவென்றால் ஈழத்தமிழர்களின் தேசிய இனப்பிரச்சனை என்பது சாராம்சத்தில் விவசாயப்பிரச்சனையே என்பதாகும்.இனப்பிரச்சனை என்பது  அதன் வெளிப்பாடு அல்லது தோற்றப்பாடு மட்டுமே.மனித உடலில் கொப்பளங்கள் போடுவது பல்வேறு நோய்களுக்கு காரணமான வெளிப்பாடுதான்.கொப்பளமே ஒரு நோயாகாது.இலங்கையில் தமிழர்கள் வாழ்வதற்குப் பதில் குர்திஸ் மக்கள் வாழ்ந்திருந்தாலும் தேசிய இனப்பிரச்சனை இருந்துதான் இருக்கும். ஏனென்றால் விவசாயப்பிரச்சனை இருந்திருக்கும்.

 

ஏன் விவசாயப்பிரச்சனை இருந்திருக்கும்?

 

அது உலகு தழுவிய பொது விதியாக இருப்பதுதான் காரணம்.நேரடி காலனியாதிக்கத்திலிருந்து விடுபட்டு அதிகாரம் ஏகாதிபத்திய தரகு வர்க்கங்களுக்கு கைமாற்றப்பட்டு போலிச்சுதந்திரம் அரசோச்சத் தொடங்கியபோதே உள்ளூர் விவசாயம் புறக்கணிக்கப்பட்டுவிட்டது. பெருவீதத் தொழிற்துறையில் முதலீடு தடைசெய்யப்பட்டு விட்டது.

இவை அனைத்து அரைக்காலனிய நாடுகளுக்கும் பொருந்துகின்ற உலகு தழுவிய பொது விதியாகும்.ஏகாதிபத்திய காலகட்டத்தின் பொதுவிதியாகும்.

ஏகாதிபத்தியம் உள்ளவரை இப்பொது விதியும் செயல்பட்டுக்கொண்டே இருக்கும்.ஏகாதிபத்திய நெருக்கடி தீவிரமடையத் தீவிரமடைய விவசாயிகள் மீதான தாக்குதலும் தீவிரமடையும்.இவ்வாறுதான் 70களில் ஜே.ஆரின் திறந்த பொருளாதாரக் கொள்கையின் கீழ் விவசாயத்துறை பின்தள்ளப்பட்டு ஏகாதிபத்திய ஏற்றுமதி சார்ந்த சேவைத்துறை முன்னுரிமை பெற்றது.யாழ் விவசாயிகள் விசுவமடுவுக்கு வெளிக்கிட்டார்கள்.இதன் தொடர்ச்சியாகத்தின்  தமிழ்த் தேசிய இன முரண்பாடு கூர்மையடைந்து 1976 இல் வட்டுக்கோட்டைத் தீர்மானம் நிறைவேறியது. திட்டமிட்ட `சிங்களக்` குடியேற்றம் என்பது நிலமற்ற சிங்கள விவசாயிகளுக்கு தமிழ் விவசாய நிலங்களைப் பறித்து தாரை வார்ப்பது தவிர வேறொன்றும் அல்ல.கல்லோயாத் திட்டத்தில் இருந்து இன்றுவரை இதுதான் உண்மை.

 

எனவே இலங்கையில் தொடரும் ஏகாதிபத்தியச் சுரண்டலுக்கும், விவசாயத்துறை புறந்தள்ளப்படுவதற்கும், தமிழ்த்தேசிய இன ஒடுக்குமுறைக்கும், இன அழிப்புக்கும் நேரடியான தொடர்பு உண்டு. 2009 இற்குப் பின்னாலும் சிங்களம் உலகமயமாக்கல் கொள்கையையே தீவிரமாக அமூலாக்கி வருகின்றது.Regainnig Sri Lanka திட்டமே அமூலாகி வருகின்றது.தமிழ் முதலாளித்துவ தேசிய வாதிகள் இந்த அடிப்படையான உண்மையை வசதியாக மறைத்து விடுகின்றனர்.இதைத்தான் பா.உ வும் செய்கின்றார்! ஏகாதிபத்தியத்துடன் அவர்களுக்குள்ள தொப்புள்க் கொடி உறவே இதற்குக் காரணமாகும்.இதன் அரசியற் கோட்பாட்டு வடிவம் தான் ஐ.நா.தமிழீழம். 

 

ஒரு அப்பட்டமான இனப்படுகொலை சாட்சி இல்லாமல் நடந்தேறட்டும் என்று இருகரம் கூப்பி கூவி அழுதமக்களை அநாதரவாகக் கைவிட்டு விட்டு முள்ளிவாய்க்காலில் தலைமறைவான ஐ.நா.ராஜபக்சவைக் கூண்டிலேற்றும்,தமிழர்களுக்கு நியாயம் பெற்றுத்தரும் என்று பேசுகின்ற மனிதர்கள் , கட்சிகள் அரசியல் மோசடிக்காரர்கள் மட்டுமல்ல கடைந்தெடுத்த அயோக்கியர்களும் ஆகும்.

 

அண்மையில் தென்னாபிரிக்க அரசு ஏகாதிபத்திய கொள்ளைக்கார கம்பனிக்கு ஆதரவாக தொழிலாளர்களைப் படுகொலை செய்யப் பயன்படுத்திய சட்டம், நிறவெறித் தென்னாபிரிக்காவின் அதே சட்டம் என்பது அம்பலமாகியது ,நமது பா.உ வுக்கு தெரியாமல் இருக்க வாய்ப்பில்லை.ஐ.நா.சபையில் பாலஸ்தீனத்துக்கு வழங்கப்பட்டதாகக் கூறப்படும் `உறுப்புரிமையற்ற அரசுப் பட்டம்` வெறும்பட்டம் தான்.அது பாலஸ்தீன வாழ்வில் எந்த மாற்றத்தையும் ஏற்படுத்தாது ஏனெனில் பாலஸ்தீனர்களுக்கு அரசியல் அதிகாரம் இல்லை. அரசு என்கிற பட்டம் தான் இருக்கின்றது.இந்த மோசடியின் ஈழத்து வடிவம் தான் நாடு கடந்த தமிழீழ அரசாங்கம்! பாலஸ்தீனப் போராளிகளைத் தனிமைப்படுத்தி இஸ்ரேலின் நம்பகமான நண்பனும், அமெரிக்கத் தரகனும், சமரசவாத சந்தர்ப்பவாத,சரணாகதியாளனும் அரபாத்தின் முதுகில் குத்திய கயவனுமான அபாஸுக்கு வழங்கும் சர்வதேச அங்கீகாரமே இந்தப் பட்டம்.

இதுகுறித்து லண்டன் நகரில் வெளிவரும் டைம்ஸ் பத்திரிகையின் இணையப் பதிப்பின் ஆசிரியர் தலையங்கத் தலைப்பு வருமாறு,

 

The State of Palestine

The UN has given Abbas a chance to start marginalising Hamas

Published at 12:01AM, November 30 2012 The Times UK

When Mahmoud Abbas returned to Ramallah after launching Palestine’s bid for statehood at the United Nations last year, he was given a hero’s welcome. When he returns after yesterday’s vote in New York to make Palestine a non-member observer state of the UN, the reception will be even rowdier. For this reason, among others, this step towards full statehood is constructive.

 

இதுவா சிறீதரன் பா.உ.வின் கனவு?   இதுவா ஈழத்தமிழரின் தேவை? 

 

சிறீதரன் அவர்கள் ஒரு மிதவாத பாராளுமன்ற சட்டபூர்வ அரசியல்வாதியாக செயல்பட்டு தமது வாழ்நிலையில் ஒரு மாற்றத்தை ஏற்படுத்துவார் என்று நம்பியே இவரை எம் பி ஆக்கியுள்ளார்கள். அந்த மக்கள் உணர்வை நாம் மதிக்கின்றோம்.

 

இலங்கை அரசியல் அமைப்பின் 6வது திருத்தம் - தமிழீழ மக்கள் சுய நிர்ணய உரிமை கோருவதை சட்டவிரோதமாக்கிவிட்ட - ஜனநாயகத்தைக் கேலிக்கூத்தாக்கிவிட்ட பின்னர் இந்த மிதவாத பாராளுமன்ற சட்டபூர்வ அரசியல் என்று ஒன்று இருக்கமுடியாது என்று நாம் உறுதியாக நம்புகின்றோம்.

 

எனினும் அதில் தங்களுக்கு நம்பிக்கை இருந்தால் முதலில் 6வது திருத்தத்தை நீக்கக் கோரிப் போராடுங்கள்!

 

தமிழீழ தேசத்துக்கு ஒருஅரசியல் பிரதிநிதித்துவதை இலங்கை நாட்டின் அரசுமுறையில் உத்தரவாதப்படுத்த போராடுங்கள்!

 

ஒரே சொல்லில் தமிழீழ சுயநிர்ணய உரிமைக்காகப் போராடுங்கள்!

 

மாவீரர் மண்ணில் மக்கள் பிரதிநிதிகள் என்ற பெயரால் ஐ.நா.வுக்கு மண்டியிடாதீர்கள்! மானத்தை விற்காதீர்கள்!!

 

அதேவேளை சிறீதரன் பா.உ சபையில் சுட்டிக்காட்டியுள்ள விவசாயப்பிரச்சனைக்கு ஒரு புதிய ஜனநாயக புரட்சிகர விவசாய இயக்கத்தால் மட்டுமே தீர்வுகாண முடியும்.

 

அவரின் முன் மொழிதல்களை நிறைவேற்ற ஒரு வெகுஜன விவசாய இயக்கத்தைக் கட்டியெழுப்ப வேண்டியது, கையாலாகா (நாம் உட்பட) புரட்சியாளர்களின் கடமையாகும்.

 

 

புதிய ஈழப் புரட்சியாளர்கள்

 

சீனவிவசாயிகளின் நில அபகரிப்பு சீர்திருத்தம் ஆளும்கும்பலின் தகிடுதத்தமே!

சீனவிவசாயிகளின் நில அபகரிப்பு சீர்திருத்தம் ஆளும்கும்பலின் தகிடுதத்தமே!

திருத்தல்வாத உலகமயமாக்க சீன ஆளும்கும்பல் மாபெரும் சீன மக்கள் ஜனநாயகப் புரட்சியின் பலாபலன்களை சீன விசாயிகளிடம் இருந்து பறித்தெடுத்து அந்நியருக்கு தாரை வார்த்து கொழுத்துப் பி்ழைக்கிறது .
============================

 

மாவீரர் நினைவு 2012

ஈரானுக்கெதிரான யுத்த ஒத்திகையே காசா போர்! - நியூயோர்க் ரைம்ஸ்

Military Analysis NYT

For Israel, Gaza Conflict Is Test for an Iran Confrontation

Menahem Kahana/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

An Israeli missile is launched from a battery. Officials said their antimissile system shot down 88 percent of all assigned targets.

By DAVID E. SANGER and THOM SHANKER

Published: November 22, 2012

WASHINGTON — The conflict that ended, for now, in a cease-fire between Hamas and Israel seemed like the latest episode in a periodic showdown. But there was a second, strategic agenda unfolding, according to American and Israeli officials: The exchange was something of a practice run for any future armed confrontation with Iran, featuring improved rockets that can reach Jerusalem and new antimissile systems to counter them.

It is Iran, of course, that most preoccupies Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Obama. While disagreeing on tactics, both have made it clear that time is short, probably measured in months, to resolve the standoff over Iran’s nuclear program.

And one key to their war-gaming has been cutting off Iran’s ability to slip next-generation missiles into the Gaza Strip or Lebanon, where they could be launched by Iran’s surrogates, Hamas, Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad, during any crisis over sanctions or an Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Michael B. Oren, the Israeli ambassador to the United States and a military historian, likened the insertion of Iranian missiles into Gaza to the Cuban missile crisis.

“In the Cuban missile crisis, the U.S. was not confronting Cuba, but rather the Soviet Union,” Mr. Oren said Wednesday, as the cease-fire was declared. “In Operation Pillar of Defense,” the name the Israel Defense Force gave the Gaza operation, “Israel was not confronting Gaza, but Iran.”

It is an imprecise analogy. What the Soviet Union was slipping into Cuba 50 years ago was a nuclear arsenal. In Gaza, the rockets and parts that came from Iran were conventional, and, as the Israelis learned, still have significant accuracy problems. But from one point of view, Israel was using the Gaza battle to learn the capabilities of Hamas and Islamic Jihad — the group that has the closest ties to Iran — as well as to disrupt those links.

Indeed, the first strike in the eight-day conflict between Hamas and Israel arguably took place nearly a month before the fighting began — in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, as another mysterious explosion in the shadow war with Iran.

A factory said to be producing light arms blew up in spectacular fashion on Oct. 22, and within two days the Sudanese charged that it had been hit by four Israeli warplanes that easily penetrated the country’s airspace. Israelis will not talk about it. But Israeli and American officials maintain that Sudan has long been a prime transit point for smuggling Iranian Fajr rockets, the kind that Hamas launched against Tel Aviv and Jerusalem over recent days.

The missile defense campaign that ensued over Israeli territory is being described as the most intense yet in real combat anywhere — and as having the potential to change warfare in the same way that novel applications of air power in the Spanish Civil War shaped combat in the skies ever since.
Of course, a conflict with Iran, if a last-ditch effort to restart negotiations fails, would look different than what has just occurred. Just weeks before the outbreak in Gaza, the United States and European and Persian Gulf Arab allies were practicing at sea, working on clearing mines that might be dropped in shipping lanes in the Strait of Hormuz.

But in the Israeli and American contingency planning, Israel would face three tiers of threat in a conflict with Iran: the short-range missiles that have been lobbed in this campaign, medium-range rockets fielded by Hezbollah in Lebanon and long-range missiles from Iran.

The last of those three could include the Shahab-3, the missile Israeli and American intelligence believe could someday be fitted with a nuclear weapon if Iran ever succeeded in developing one and — the harder task — shrinking it to fit a warhead.

A United States Army air defense officer said that the American and Israeli militaries were “absolutely learning a lot” from this campaign that may contribute to a more effective “integration of all those tiered systems into a layered approach.”

The goal, and the challenge, is to link short-, medium- and long-range missile defense radar systems and interceptors against the different types of threats that may emerge in the next conflict.

Even so, a historic battle of missile versus missile defense has played out in the skies over Israel, with Israeli officials saying their Iron Dome system shot down 350 incoming rockets — 88 percent of all targets assigned to the missile defense interceptors. Israeli officials declined to specify the number of interceptors on hand to reload their missile-defense batteries.

Before the conflict began, Hamas was estimated to have amassed an arsenal of 10,000 to 12,000 rockets. Israeli officials say their pre-emptive strikes on Hamas rocket depots severely reduced the arsenal of missiles, both those provided by Iran and some built in Gaza on a Syrian design.

But Israeli military officials emphasize that most of the approximately 1,500 rockets fired by Hamas in this conflict were on trajectories toward unpopulated areas. The radar tracking systems of Iron Dome are intended to quickly discriminate between those that are hurtling toward a populated area and strays not worth expending a costly interceptor to knock down.

“This discrimination is a very important part of all missile defense systems,” said the United States Army expert, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe current military assessments. “You want to ensure that you’re going to engage a target missile that is heading toward a defended footprint, like a populated area. This clearly has been a validation of the Iron Dome system’s capability.”

The officer and other experts said that Iran also was certain to be studying the apparent inability of the rockets it supplied to Hamas to effectively strike targets in Israel, and could be expected to re-examine the design of that weapon for improvements.

Israel currently fields five Iron Dome missile defense batteries, each costing about $50 million, and wants to more than double the number of batteries. In the past two fiscal years, the United States has given about $275 million in financial assistance to the Iron Dome program. Replacement interceptors cost tens of thousands of dollars each.

Just three weeks ago, Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, visited an Iron Dome site as a guest of his Israeli counterpart during the largest American-Israeli joint military exercise ever. For the three-week exercise, called Austere Challenge, American military personnel operated Patriot land-based missile defense batteries on temporary deployment to Israel as well as Aegis missile defense ships, which carry tracking radars and interceptors.

Despite its performance during the current crisis, though, Iron Dome has its limits.

It is specifically designed to counter only short-range rockets, those capable of reaching targets at a distance of no more than 50 miles. Israel is developing a medium-range missile defense system, called David’s Sling, which was tested in computer simulations during the recent American-Israeli exercise, and has fielded a long-range system called Arrow. “Nobody has really had to manage this kind of a battle before,” said Jeffrey White, a defense fellow for the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “There are lots of rockets coming in all over half the country, and there are all different kinds of rockets being fired.”

A version of this military analysis appeared in print on November 23, 2012, on page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: Gaza Conflict As Trial Run.

Israel Is Dropping Leaflets Telling Gazans To Evacuate Their Homes And Gather In 'City Center'

Israel Is Dropping Leaflets Telling Gazans To Evacuate Their Homes And Gather In 'City Center'

Geoffrey Ingersoll and Robert Johnson|Nov. 20, 2012, 9:32 AM|1,881|10
Anderson Cooper

Reports from Gaza have Israel dropping leaflets advising residents to evacuate their homes and, using specific roads, make their way to Gaza City Center, BBC reports.

This in the wake of last night's advisement that anyone leaving their home would be targeted.

The leaflets this evening, though, advise the opposite:

"For your own safety, you are required to immediately evacuate your homes and move toward Gaza City centre." 

The leaflets come on the eve of mainstream media reportage that seems to point at an imminent ceasefire — specifically CNN, which reported that Egypt said Israel will halt aggression within hours.

Egypt, the largest of the Arab states, has been a major player in peace negotiations.

காசாப் போர் வாரம் ஒன்று! பாலஸ்தீனப் பொதுமக்கள் படுகொலை நூறு!!

The deaths of 11 Palestinian civilians - nine from one family - in an air strike on Sunday - drew more international calls for an end to six days of hostilities

International pressure mounts for Gaza truce
By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Dan Williams
GAZA/JERUSALEM | Mon Nov 19, 2012 6:16am EST

GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel bombed dozens of suspected militant sites in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip on Monday and Palestinians kept up their cross-border rocket fire as international pressure for a truce intensified.

Twelve Palestinian civilians and four fighters were killed in the air strikes, bringing the Gaza death toll since fighting began on Wednesday to 90, more than half of them non-combatants, local officials said. Three Israeli civilians have been killed.

After an overnight lull, militants in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip fired 12 rockets at southern Israel in the span of 10 minutes, causing no casualties, police said. One landed near a school, but it was closed at the time.

The deaths of 11 Palestinian civilians - nine from one family - in an air strike on Sunday - drew more international calls for an end to six days of hostilities and could test Western support for an offensive Israel billed as self-defedefensence after years of cross-border rocket attacks.

Israel's military did not immediately comment on a report in the liberal Haaretz newspaper that it had mistakenly fired on the Dalu family home, where the dead spanned four generations, while trying to kill a Hamas rocketry chief.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was due to arrive in Cairo to weigh in on ceasefire efforts led by Egypt, which borders both Israel and Gaza and whose Muslim Brotherhood-rooted government has been hosting leaders of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, a smaller armed faction in the Palestinian enclave.

Israeli media said a delegation from Israel had also been to Cairo for the truce talks. A spokesman for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government declined comment on the matter.
Italian Foreign Minister Giulio Terzi, speaking in Brussels ahead of a meeting of European Union foreign ministers, said: "I believe there are the conditions to quickly reach a ceasefire in the next few hours."

He said that from his conversations with members of the Israeli government, he understood "there is no interest at all" to invade the Gaza Strip.

"Exactly the opposite is true," Terzi said. "Obviously, this Israeli self-restraint should rely on a guarantee that the launches of rockets should end."

China on Monday urged both sides to halt the violence, while U.S. President Barack Obama said at the weekend it would be "preferable" if Israel did not mount a ground invasion of Gaza.

The Gaza flare-up, and Israel's repeated signaling that it could soon escalate from the aerial campaign to a ground sweep of the cramped and impoverished territory, have stoked the worries of world powers watching an already combustible region.

In the absence of any prospect of permanent peace between Israel and Hamas and other Islamist factions, mediated deals for each to hold fire unilaterally have been the only formula for stemming bloodshed in the past. But both sides now placed the onus on the other.

Izzat Risheq, aide to Hamas politburo chief Khaled Meshaal, wrote on Facebook that Hamas would enter a truce only after Israel "stops its aggression, ends its policy of targeted assassinations and lifts the blockade of Gaza".

Listing Israel's terms, Vice Prime Minister Moshe Yaalon wrote on Twitter: "If there is quiet in the south and no rockets and missiles are fired at Israel's citizens, nor terrorist attacks engineered from the Gaza Strip, we will not attack."

Yaalon also said Israel wanted an end to Gaza guerrilla activity in the neighboring Egyptian Sinai, a desert peninsula where lawlessness has spread during Cairo's political crises.

AIR STRIKES

Israel bombed some 80 sites in Gaza overnight, the military said, adding in a statement that targets included "underground rocket launching sites, terror tunnels and training bases" as well as "buildings owned by senior terrorist operatives".

Netanyahu has said he had assured world leaders that Israel was doing its utmost to avoid causing civilian casualties in Gaza. At least 22 of the Gaza fatalities have been children, medical officials said.

China, which has cultivated good ties with Israel, said on Monday it was extremely concerned about the Israeli military operations in Gaza.

"We condemn the over-use of force causing deaths and injuries amongst innocent ordinary people," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a daily news briefing in Beijing.
Before leaving for Cairo, Ban urged Israel and the Palestinians to cooperate with all Egyptian-led efforts to reach an immediate ceasefire.

In scenes recalling Israel's 2008-2009 winter invasion of Gaza, tanks, artillery and infantry have massed in field encampments along the sandy, fenced-off border and military convoys moved on roads in the area.

Israel has also authorized the call-up of 75,000 military reservists, so far mobilizing around half that number.

A big, bloody rocket strike might be enough for Netanyahu to give a green light for a ground offensive, despite the political risks of heavy casualties before a January election he is favored to win.
But while 84 percent of Israelis supported the Gaza assault, according to a Haaretz poll, only 30 percent wanted an invasion. Nineteen percent wanted their government to work on securing a truce soon.

Israel's declared goal is to deplete Gaza arsenals and force Hamas to stop rocket fire that has bedeviled Israeli border towns for years.

The rockets now have greater range, becoming a strategic weapon for Gaza's otherwise massively outgunned militants. Several projectiles have targeted Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. None hit the two cities and some of the rockets were shot down by Israel's Iron Dome interceptor system.
As a precaution against the rocket interceptions endangering nearby Ben-Gurion International Airport, civil aviation authorities said on Monday new flight paths were being used.
There was no indication takeoffs and landings at Ben-Gurion had been affected.

SWORN ENEMIES

Hamas and other groups in Gaza are sworn enemies of the Jewish state which they refuse to recognize and seek to eradicate, claiming all Israeli territory as rightfully theirs.

Hamas won legislative elections in the Palestinian Territories in 2006 but a year later, after the collapse of a unity government under President Mahmoud Abbas the Islamist group seized control of Gaza in a brief and bloody civil war with forces loyal to Abbas.

Abbas then dismissed the Hamas government led by the group's leader Ismail Haniyeh but he refuses to recognize Abbas' authority and runs Gazan affairs.

While it is denounced as a terrorist organization in the West, Hamas enjoys widespread support in the Arab world, where Islamist parties are on the rise.

U.S.-backed Abbas and Fatah hold sway in the Israeli-occupied West Bank from their seat of government in the town of Ramallah. The Palestinians seek to establish an independent state in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip with East Jerusalem as its capital.
 

Israel hits Hamas buildings, shoots down Tel Aviv-bound rocket

Israel hits Hamas buildings, shoots down Tel Aviv-bound rocket
By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Jeffrey Heller
GAZA/JERUSALEM | Sat Nov 17, 2012 9:14pm GMT

GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli aircraft bombed Hamas government buildings in Gaza, and the "Iron Dome" defence system shot down a Tel Aviv-bound rocket on Saturday as Israel geared up for a possible ground invasion.

Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist group that runs the Gaza Strip, said Israeli missiles wrecked the office building of Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh - where he had met on Friday with the Egyptian prime minister - and struck a police headquarters.

The effect the tensions between Israel and Iran have on your wealthDiscover More
Along the Tel Aviv beachfront, volleyball games came to an abrupt halt and people crouched as sirens sounded. Two interceptor rockets streaked into the sky. A flash and an explosion followed as Iron Dome, deployed only hours earlier near the city, destroyed the incoming projectile in mid-air.
With Israeli tanks and artillery positioned along the Gaza border and no end in sight to hostilities now in their fourth day, Tunisia's foreign minister travelled to the enclave in a show of Arab solidarity.
In Cairo, a presidential source said Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi would hold four-way talks with the Qatari emir, the prime minister of Turkey and Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal in the Egyptian capital on Saturday to discuss the Gaza crisis.

Egypt has been working to reinstate calm between Israel and Hamas after an informal ceasefire brokered by Cairo unravelled over the past few weeks. Meshaal, who lives in exile, has already held a round of talks with Egyptian security officials.

Officials in Gaza said 43 Palestinians, nearly half of them civilians including eight children, had been killed since Israel began its air strikes. Three Israeli civilians were killed by a rocket on Thursday.
Israel unleashed its massive air campaign on Wednesday with the declared goal of deterring Hamas from launching rockets that have plagued its southern communities for years.

The Israeli army said it had zeroed in on a number of government buildings during the night, including Haniyeh's office, the Hamas Interior Ministry and a police compound.
Taher al-Nono, a spokesman for the Hamas government, held a news conference near the rubble of the prime minister's office and pledged: "We will declare victory from here."
Hamas's armed wing claimed responsibility for Saturday's rocket attack on Tel Aviv, the third against the city since Wednesday. It said it fired an Iranian-designed Fajr-5 at the coastal metropolis, some 70 km (43 miles) north of Gaza.

"Well that wasn't such a big deal," said one woman, who had watched the interception while clinging for protection to the trunk of a baby palm tree on a traffic island.

In the Israeli Mediterranean port of Ashdod, a rocket ripped into several balconies. Police said five people were hurt.

Among those killed in airstrikes on Gaza on Saturday were at least four suspected militants riding on motorcycles.

Israel's operation has drawn Western support for what U.S. and European leaders have called Israel's right to self-defence, along with appeals to avoid civilian casualties.

Hamas, shunned by the West over its refusal to recognise Israel, says its cross-border attacks have come in response to Israeli strikes against Palestinian fighters in Gaza.

At a late night session on Friday, Israeli cabinet ministers decided to more than double the current reserve troop quota set for the Gaza offensive to 75,000, political sources said, in a signal Israel was edging closer to an invasion.

Around 16,000 reservists have already been called up.

Asked by reporters whether a ground operation was possible, Major-General Tal Russo, commander of the Israeli forces on the Gaza frontier, said: "Definitely."

"We have a plan ... it will take time. We need to have patience. It won't be a day or two," he added.
A possible move into the densely populated Gaza Strip and the risk of major casualties it brings would be a significant gamble for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, favourite to win a January national election.

Hamas fighters are no match for the Israeli military. The last Gaza war, involving a three-week long Israeli air blitz and ground invasion over the New Year period of 2008-09, killed over 1,400 Palestinians, mostly civilians. Thirteen Israelis died.

But the Gaza conflagration has stirred the pot of a Middle East already boiling from two years of Arab revolution and a civil war in Syria that threatens to spread beyond its borders.

"Israel should understand that many things have changed and that lots of water has run in the Arab river," Tunisian Foreign Minister Rafik Abdesslem said as he surveyed the wreckage from a bomb-blast site in central Gaza.

One major change has been the election of an Islamist government in Cairo that is allied with Hamas, potentially narrowing Israel's manoeuvering room in confronting the Palestinian group. Israel and Egypt made peace in 1979.

"DE-ESCALATION"

Netanyahu spoke late on Friday with U.S. President Barack Obama for the second time since the offensive began, the prime minister's office said in a statement.

"(Netanyahu) expressed his deep appreciation for the U.S. position that Israel has a right to defend itself and thanked him for American aid in purchasing Iron Dome batteries," the statement added.
The two leaders have had a testy relationship and have been at odds over how to curb Iran's nuclear programme.

A White House official said on Saturday Obama called Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan to discuss how the two countries could help bring an end to the Gaza conflict.

Ben Rhodes, White House deputy national security adviser, told reporters that Washington "wants the same thing as the Israelis want", an end to rocket attacks from Gaza. He said the United States is emphasising diplomacy and "de-escalation".

In Berlin, a spokesman for German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she had spoken to Netanyahu and Egypt's Mursi, stressing to the Israeli leader that Israel had a right to self-defence and that a ceasefire must be agreed as soon as possible to avoid more bloodshed.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is expected to visit Israel and Egypt next week to push for an end to the fighting in Gaza, U.N. diplomats said on Friday.

The Israeli military said 492 rockets fired from Gaza have hit Israel since the operation began. Iron Dome intercepted another 245.

In Jerusalem, targeted by a Palestinian rocket on Friday for the first time in 42 years, there was little outward sign on the Jewish Sabbath that the attack had any impact on the usually placid pace of life in the holy city.

Some families in Gaza have abandoned their homes - some of them damaged and others situated near potential Israeli targets - and packed into the houses of friends and relatives.

(Additional reporting by Dan Williams and Douglas Hamilton in Tel Aviv, Allyn Fisher-Ilan in Jerusalem, Jeff Mason aboard Air Force One, Writing by Jeffrey Heller; editing by Crispian Balmer)

ஒபாமாவின் இரண்டாம் ஆட்சிக்காலத்தின் இலக்கு ஈரானே!

Israel Issues Emergency Call Up Of Reservists For Gaza Ground Campaign

The operation, called “Pillar of Defense”, has been launched by the Israel military.

Many of the buildings in downtown Gaza City are on fire after being attacked by Israeli warplanes, RT’s Arabic correspondent Saed Swerky reports on Twitter.

The IDF says all options are on the table in Gaza, including a ground operation

Israel has started emergency call up of reservists, while saying they are preparing for a ground
invasion of Gaza, RT`s Tom Barton reports from Israel. The strikes caused extensive damage to
the long-range missile capabilities and underground weapons storage facilities, the IDF said on
Twitter.
 
The Gaza Education Ministry has announced a suspension of study at Gaza schools and
universities due to heavy fire by Israel.

Big explosion occurred near home of Hamas leader, Mahmoud Zahar, Al Arabiya reported. The
death toll from the strikes has risen to nine with some 20 wounded, the Red Cross says.

Jabari was traveling in his vehicle in Gaza City when his car was struck, AP reports, citing
witnesses. Reports say Jabari, his son and three other people were killed in the strike.

An Israeli strike also targeted Raad Atar, another senior Hamas military wing commander, but he
survived, Israeli Ynet reports.

The assassination has “opened the gates of hell,” the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the armed
wing of Hamas, were quoted by AFP as saying. The militants vowed to ”continue the path of
resistance.”

The IDF stated on its website that it has launched a “widespread campaign on terror sites and
operatives in the Gaza Strip” and Jabari was its first target.  He’s the highest ranking Hamas
official to be killed since 2009, when Israel conducted ground offensive against Gaza.

“The purpose of this operation was to severely impair the command and control chain of the
Hamas leadership, as well as its terrorist infrastructure. This was a surgical operation in
cooperation with the Israeli Security Agency, that was implemented on the basis of concrete
intelligence and using advanced capabilities,” the statement said.

The crackdown follows the recent escalation of violence in the region. The conflict broke out
last week when Palestinian militants attacked at an Israeli military jeep.

Israel responded with retaliatory attacks, to which the Gaza Strip replied with heavy rocket fire at
southern Israel.

Jabari is the most senior Hamas official to be killed since Operation Cast Lead in Gaza four
years ago. He is believed to be behind the notorious abduction and detention of Israeli soldier
Gilad Shalit, who was held hostage for more than four years until being released last year as part
of a hostage swap deal.