Netanyahu Addresses IAEA Report

Finally Israeli PM Netanyahu gave his views on the recent IAEA report which outlines Iran's nuclear ambitions in graphic terms.

PM: Iranian nukes endanger Mideast, world peace

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Wednesday called on the international community to stop Iran from getting nuclear weapons following a report by the UN nuclear watchdog that said Tehran appears to have worked on designing an atomic bomb.

"The significance of the report is that the international community must bring about the cessation of Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons, which endanger the peace of the world and of the Middle East," the Prime Minister's Office said in a statement.

"The IAEA report corroborates the position of the international community, and of Israel, that Iran is developing nuclear weapons," the statement added.

Even political rival Tzipi Livni offered to put politics aside for this issue and agreed with the PM:

Also on Wednesday, opposition leader Tzipi Livni embarked on a media campaign in an effort to convince the international community to take action against Iran's nuclear program. Speaking with The Jerusalem Post and nine different foreign media outlets, Livni called the Iranian issue, "not political."

“Today, the whole world faces an important test: Will they understand that Iran is a threat that must be taken care of?” Livni told the Post.

Livni's media campaign is focusing specifically on Russia and China, in hopes of convincing the two key countries to intensify their opposition to Tehran in the UN Security Council.

“Until now, China and Russia avoided dramatic sanctions for economic reasons,” Livni explained to the Post. “In the past, I tried to convince them, but the answer I received is that there is no proof.”

“Now there is proof that this isn’t a Zionist plot,” she added.

“World leaders must work together and take action,” Livni added. “Make the obvious conclusions from this report. You cannot claim that you don’t have enough information.”

“Iran must be stopped. The time to act is now. There is no longer a dilemma on this issue,” she said.

And this:

Earlier Wednesday, Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Shaul Mofaz (Kadima) called the IAEA report “an opportunity for the free world to take action.”

Speaking from the US, Mofaz told Army Radio that he thinks “the time has come to intensify sanctions and paralyze the Iranian economy.”

“The report exposed the true face of Iran and its intentions,” the Kadima MK said. “Anyone who thinks he’s immune [to the Iranian threat] is making a mistake.”

Mofaz, who was born in Tehran and moved to Israel at age 9, explained that Iran’s missile range could reach most European capitals, and will bring “a balance of terror in the Middle East.”

He contended that “military action of any kind, particularly from Israel, is the last and worst course of action at this time, but all options must be on the table and ready.”

So now it appears that the next step will be a failure of the UNSC to come up with tangible, meaningful sanctions against Iran. With China and Russia present, we can count on no serious attempts at such sanctions.

Then the question will become how long will Israel wait before it becomes apparent that the types of necessary sanctions needed against Iran will never happen. They should know this by now. Perhaps they do, and they simply want to proceed through a process of proving that appropriate sanctions will never occur.

Either way, Israel is making it well known (to anyone listening) that the solution to the Iranian nuclear problem is meaningful sanctions or military action. Period. China and Russia are making it clear that we won't see meaningful sanctions.

Those dots are pretty easy to connect. The only remaining question becomes "when?"

Also see:

PA weighs next steps as statehood bid seems doomed

The Palestinian Authority said on Wednesday that it was weighing its next steps in wake of reports that the UN Security Council has failed to reach consensus on the Palestinian application for membership in the international organization.

PA President Mahmoud Abbas is expected to hold consultations with his top aides in the coming days to discuss the Palestinian response to the failure of the statehood bid, a PA official in Ramallah told The Jerusalem Post.

"The Americans have been threatening from day one to foil the application for membership of a Palestinian state in the UN," the official said. "Our plan now is to take the battle to the UN General Assembly, where we are certain to score victory. This will allow us access to many important UN agencies and organizations, including the International Criminal Court."

Also today we see another big quake in Turkey:

At least 3 Dead as 5.7 Quake Rocks Eastern Turkey

At least three people are dead after an earthquake measuring 5.7 on the Richter scale hit eastern Turkey on Wednesday evening, causing a six-storey hotel and other buildings to collapse and trapping people inside.

The earthquake comes just over two weeks after a 7.3-magnitude earthquake struck the Van region on October 23, killing at least 600 people.

According to the state-run TRT television network, Wednesday’s quake brought down the hotel as well as some buildings that had been damaged in the earlier quake. The Associated Press reported that TV footage showed residents and rescuers trying to lift debris to evacuate people believed to be trapped under the hotel. Some reports said that as many as 18 buildings had collapsed.

According to AP, about 1,400 aftershocks have rocked the region since the 7.2-magnitude earthquake. Many residents have been living in tents, too afraid to return to their homes, said the report.

The birth pains have really picked up over the past few months.

I can recall even as recently as 10 years ago, we could go weeks without seeing any prophetically related news stories. When this blog started a few years ago, the idea was to have weekly updates. That soon became a daily process, and now, over the past few months a 'news sweep' is needed at least twice a day. In fact it is amazing now, just how much will be missed following an entire day of separation from the news.

There can be no doubting where we are in this last generation - one idea is crystal clear - we are in the final stages of labor pains.