Diplomatic flurry ahead of Palestinian UN bid - Yahoo! News
Yahoo News reports: "A high-level U.S. team kicked off a new round of shuttle diplomacy on Wednesday in a last-ditch effort to contain the diplomatic fallout from the Palestinian statehood push, but the odds of a breakthrough appeared slim as the Palestinians pledged to go ahead with mass rallies to draw world attention to their bid."

Jordan prefers talks for Palestinian state - Yahoo! News
Yahoo News reports: "Jordan's foreign minister says his country supports a Palestinian drive for recognition at the U.N. but prefers negotiations toward creation of a Palestinian state."

Israel warns against Palestinian UN bid - Yahoo! News
Yahoo News reports: "Hardline Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman warned Wednesday there will be "harsh and grave consequences" if the Palestinians persist with their plan to seek UN membership as a state."

DEBKAfile - Palestinians back off UN Security Council statehood bid
DEBKAfile reports: "The tempest which Israel had tensely anticipated for September in the wake of a Palestinian bid for unilateral UN recognition of their state looks like fizzling out before it begins as a result of a massive US campaign to avert it, backed by Saudi Arabia, Europe and Egypt. Early Wednesday, Sept. 14, Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas decided crucially not to submit his application to the UN Security Council."

US ready to fight Palestinian UN bid to bitter end - Yahoo! News
Yahoo News reports: "The United States has decided to fight to the bitter end to convince the Palestinians to abandon their bid for UN membership, despite the rather small chance that the battle will succeed."

Comment: Things seem very much up in the air at this point (get it?) but it's clear that the U.S. has signaled they will veto a Palestinian statehood bid in the Security Council and are doing everything they can behind the scenes to prevent the PA from trying to do an end-run around the Quartet's official peace process. Still, I wonder if they are taking into account the extreme anti-Israel bias that much of the members of the General Assembly have? Even if the PA stands down and avoids taking it to the Security Council, they can still stir up a lot of anti-Israel passion in the General Assembly by going for an upgrade in their status. Even if it's short of statehood, I wonder if they would call it a win and paint the U.S. and Israel as the bad guys?

Israel News, Ynetnews - Iran tests new smart bombs
Ynetnews reports: "Iran's fleet of fighter jets has been equipped with new anti-missile capability, allowing them to 'detect and intercept all incoming missiles,' the state-run Fars news agency reported on Wednesday."

Reuters - Russia resists Syria sanctions, Assad forces kill 22
Reuters reports: "Russia has rejected Western calls for wider sanctions on Syria over its violent crackdown on protests against President Bashar al-Assad, in which the United Nations said 2,600 people have been killed."

Reuters - Taliban attack across Kabul, target U.S. Embassy
Reuters reports: "Taliban fighters fired rockets at the U.S. Embassy and NATO headquarters in Kabul on Tuesday and attacked police in three other areas in the biggest assault the insurgent group has mounted on the Afghan capital."

Reuters - Dangerous TB spreading at alarming rate in Europe-WHO
Reuters reports: "Multidrug-resistant and extensively drug-resistant forms of tuberculosis (TB) are spreading at an alarming rate in Europe and will kill thousands unless health authorities halt the pandemic, the World Health Organisation(WHO) said on Wednesday."

Reuters - Arabs to push for Palestinian statehood bid
Yahoo News reports: "Arab states will push for a fully-fledged Palestinian state at the United Nations next week, the Qatari prime minister said on Monday, despite a U.S. threat to block such a move."

Reuters - U.S. envoys Hale, Ross to head back to Mideast
Reuters reports: "Senior U.S. envoys will visit the Middle East this week to try to revive peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians and avert a Palestinian bid for U.N. membership, the United States said on Tuesday."

My Way News - Palestinians' UN gambit could spur changes
My Way News reports: The path to full membership seems blocked because it goes through the Security Council, the powerful 15-member body where the United States - still urging the Palestinians to back down - promises a veto. But the General Assembly, meeting next week in New York, seems likely to recognize Palestine as a nonmember observer state. This status, identical to that of the Vatican, requires only a simple majority of its 193 members.

Reuters - Turkey's Erdogan hailed as a new champion for Arabs
Reuters reports: "The hero's greeting may well have surpassed Erdogan's own expectations as he set out on a tour of Arab countries aimed at asserting Turkey's role as a leader in a turbulent region. Much of his new found popularity, especially with the Arab public, is probably due to his confrontation with Israel."

Reuters - Turkey warns may launch ground raid in Northern Iraq
Reuters reports: "Turkey warned on Tuesday that it was preparing a possible ground operation against Kurdish separatist militants in northern Iraq, depending on the result of talks with Iraq."

Comment: There has been a profound change in the leadership in Ankara and yet they still turn to the time-worn Arab strategy of boosting their standing by bashing Israel. It would be comical if it weren't so deadly serious.

Arabs to push for Palestinian statehood bid - Yahoo! News
Yahoo News reports: "Arab states will push for a fully-fledged Palestinian state at the United Nations next week, the Qatari prime minister said on Monday, despite a U.S. threat to block such a move [...] The Palestinians currently hold U.N. 'observer' status. Full member status would require approval in the Security Council, where Israel's ally the United States had said it would veto any such resolution."

Turkey says flotilla raid was 'cause for war' - Yahoo! News
Yahoo News reports: "Turkey's prime minister said Monday that Israel's raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla last year was 'cause for war' but added that his country showed "patience" and refrained from taking any action."

DEBKAfile - Turkish frigates to confront Israeli vessels, disable their weapons
DEBKAfile reports: "As Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan was set to start a visit to Egypt, Turkish naval sources reported: 'If Turkish warships encounter an Israeli military ship outside Israel's 12-mile territorial waters, they will advance up to 100 meters from the ship and disable its weapon system.' The threat bluntly applied to Israel's naval enforcement of its UN-approved blockade of the Gaza Strip."

Comment: I'm getting tired of Turkey, just who do they think they are? What did they think would happen when they allowed their people to attempt to run the blockade? If one country sets up a naval blockade and another country (supposedly an ally) funds and supports the blockade runners, who exactly is the villain and who is the victim? Turkey is painting Israel as the villain but you know, you can turn it around. I think Israel should demand an apology from Turkey for not being an supportive ally. This is taking us further down the road of Turkey turning to the enemy camp.

Israel: Decade after 9/11, Iran must not get nukes - Yahoo! News
Yahoo News reports: "Israel's prime minister says a decade after the Sept. 11 attacks, Iran's nuclear program must be stopped and that the possibility of extremists getting atomic weapons is a real threat. Benjamin Netanyahu spoke at a memorial Sunday marking the anniversary of the attacks in the U.S."

My Way News - Looking back and ahead, America remembers 9/11
My Way News reports: "In New York, Washington and Pennsylvania, across the United States and the world, people carried out rituals now as familiar as they are heartbreaking: American flags unfurled at the new World Trade Center tower and the Eiffel Tower, and tears shed at the base of the Pentagon and a base in Iraq [...] The world offered gestures large and small. The Colosseum in Rome, rarely lit up, glowed in solidarity. Pope Benedict XVI encouraged people to resist 'temptation toward hatred' and focus on justice and peace. Taps sounded in Belgium and in Bagram, Afghanistan. In Madrid, they planted 10 American oak trees in a park, led by a prince."

Egyptians break into Israel Embassy in Cairo - Yahoo! News
Yahoo News reports: "A group of about 30 protesters broke into the Israeli Embassy in Cairo Friday and dumped hundreds of documents out of the windows after a day of demonstrations outside the building in which crowds swinging sledge hammers and using their bare hands tore apart the embassy's security wall [...] Since the fall of Hosni Mubarak in February, calls have grown in Egypt for ending the historic 1979 peace treaty with Israel, a pact that has never had the support of ordinary Egyptians."

Israeli envoy leaves after Cairo embassy attack - Yahoo! News
Yahoo News reports: "Israel flew its ambassador home on Saturday after Egyptians stormed the building housing the Israeli mission in Cairo, plunging Egypt's ruling army deeper into its toughest diplomatic crisis since taking over from Hosni Mubarak."

Comment: It's really sad what's happened to Egypt. A pillar of regional stability has turned into a wild card and is coming close to becoming yet another failed state deranged by hatred of Israel. Whatever the "Arab Spring" represents, it's not progress.

Analysis: Turkey to complicate life for Israel, but avoid war - Yahoo! News
Yahoo News reports: "Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan raised the stakes with Israel on Thursday, saying he would dispatch the navy to escort any future flotillas to Gaza and prevent a repeat of an Israeli raid last year that killed nine Turks."

US tells Israel, Turkey to 'cool it' amid tensions - Yahoo! News
Yahoo News reports: "The Obama administration on Friday bluntly told U.S. allies Israel and Turkey to "cool it" as tensions between the two rose over aid flotillas to Gaza. Amid concern over a possible naval confrontation in the Mediterranean, the State Department said both sides should exercise restraint and avoid any provocations."

Magnitude-6.4 quake strikes off of Vancouver - Yahoo! News
Yahoo News reports: "A magnitude-6.4 earthquake struck Friday off the coast of British Columbia, the U.S. Geological Survey said. The quake struck 12:41 p.m. PDT (1941 GMT) at a depth of 14.3 miles (23 kilometers) about 173 miles (279 kilometers) west of Vancouver, the USGS said. The quake was initially reported to have a magnitude of 6.7 but was later downgraded by the USGS."

Palestinians officially launch statehood campaign - Yahoo! News
Yahoo News reports: "The Palestinians on Thursday officially launched their campaign to join the United Nations as a full member state, saying they would stage a series of peaceful events in the run-up to the annual gathering of the U.N. General Assembly later this month."

Comment: It's difficult to see how the Quartet can spin this as anything but a monumental repudiation of their negotiating strategy. The Palestinians are attempting to do an end-run around the established peace process and it remains to be seen whether the U.S. and the rest of the Quartet team of Mideast peacemakers will let them get away with it. That most of the countries in the world are against Israel is a given, but thankfully, Israel has never entrusted their security to the goodwill of others. The real question is: Can Israel still count on friends?

WND - Russian plan: Squeeze U.S. out of picture
World Net Daily reports: "Working with his counterparts in Belarus and Kazakhstan, Putin wants to turn the group into a "Eurasian economic union" by 2013 with the prospect of either a common currency or a plan allowing currencies to be used interchangeably in economic transactions [...] Russia and its customs union members even have adopted portions of the EU's body of laws in which analysts say that copying an existing model saves work and eases the task of creating a free-trade zone with the EU."

Palestinians resist US pressure on statehood bid - Yahoo! News
Yahoo News reports: "The Palestinians on Tuesday said they would not give in to American pressure to drop their bid for statehood at the United Nations, taking a tough position ahead of a meeting with a senior U.S. delegation."

Comment: I wonder how many more missiles they will fire off from Gaza to demonstrate their peaceful intentions? Of course, none of that will matter at the United Nations, where member states long ago bought into the narrative about the "poor oppressed Palestinians."

Turkey ups naval presence amid tension with Israel - Yahoo! News
Yahoo News reports: "Turkey said on Tuesday it was freezing defense trade with Israel and stepping up naval patrols in the eastern Mediterranean, a sign of growing tension between the two major U.S. allies in the Middle East. Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's threat to send warships into waters where Israel's navy operates raises the risk of a naval confrontation between the two powers."

Comment: Turkey has been taken over by an Islamist government that is almost as anti-Israel as Iran. Is it any wonder they will join the Gog alliance in the future? Sure, that's a future fulfillment of Bible prophecy, but it's quite startling to see it happening right now. Turkey is out of control and I wonder if there is anyone in the West (in NATO or in the White House) willing to call them out?

Powerful quake hits western Indonesia - Yahoo! News
Yahoo News reports: A powerful earthquake jolted the western Indonesian island of Sumatra, killing a 12-year-old boy and sending people streaming from their houses and hotels in panic. Hundreds of patients from at least one hospital had to be evacuated, some in wheelchairs or with infusion drips still attached to their arms. The U.S. Geological Survey said the 6.6-magnitude quake was centered 60 miles (100 kilometers) southwest of the city of Medan at a depth of 62 miles (110 kilometers).

US counts the cost of nine months of unprecedented weather extremes - guardian.co.uk
The Guardian reports: "Ever since a massive blizzard causing $2bn of damage paralysed cities from Chicago to the north-east in January, nearly every month has been marked by a $1b -weather catastrophe. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric administration (Noaa), there have been 10 major disasters already this year, leaving more than 700 people dead and property damage of over $35bn."

Comment: It doesn't just seem like it's been one disaster after another, it really has been.