War Update

11-18-12

A-O Intelligence Brief

We had expected to provide you with a full Intelligence report, but someone hit the brakes in Cairo, Egypt. Egypt played host to ceasefire talks. Egypt's president asked for negotiating help from Turkey and Qatar, but it didn't seem to matter. Hamas negotiators rejected every attempt at a ceasefire. Israel gave a list of 6 demands as pre-conditions for a ceasefire, which Hamas summarily dismissed out of hand. Even so, ceasefire talks continued all weekend and are slated to continue into Monday and perhaps Tuesday.

The ceasefire talks put Israeli ground invasion plans on hold for the entire weekend. Israeli leaders had agreed to President Obama's request to wait for ground action until the outcome of ceasefire talks had been determined. The White House is doing everything possible to prevent Israel from invading the Gaza Strip. Why? We understand the President is afraid that a ground invasion would sink any chances for US-Iran nuclear talks and possibly even trigger Iran to take direct military action against Israel once ground fighting started between Hamas and Israel. Comments circulating around the diplomatic circles is that the next 24 to 48 are crucial as to whether an all-out war can be avoided. If a ceasefire cannot be hammered out before midweek, most analysts believe things will slide into a ground war and no ceasefire can be expected until the war runs its course.

So what happened today? Israel conducted "routine" air strikes and Hamas responded with periodic rocket launches. Neither action produced any notable results.  Take a look at today's headlines and links below for more details.

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Diplomats Scramble To Arrange Ceasefire


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Foreign Leaders Warn Israel Against Invasion


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Hamas Rejects Ceasefire


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IDF Hits 1,100 Gaza Targets

Since Shooting Started 5 Days Ago

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Israel Hit by Mass Hacker Attack


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