Drumbeats of War - Rumors of War
Iran’s President Ahmadinejad says, “Israel’s destruction is near.”
Iran says their (essentially bogus) uranium transfer deal with Turkey is off if UN sanctions approved, some of which are nearly certain to be approved.
International group of hundreds of humanitarian activists in small non-warships from a variety of countries including Britain, Ireland, Algeria, Greece, and most notably Turkey are headed for the Gaza strip. Their purpose: to break the Israeli naval blockade of Gaza. This is said to be a pet project of Turkey’s President Erdogan, who Israeli sources say have sent a private message to Israel ‘threatening reprisals’ if Israel blocks the ships.
Those boats are scheduled to run… or run into… the blockade on Thursday while Israel’s huge Turning Point 4 preparedness drill is still going on. It is bad timing, to say the least. Or perfect timing, if one is looking for an incident that could easily set off the war machines of the Middle East.
Israel is goading the Arab nations with new legislation that stops visits of relatives to Hamas prisoners, in retaliation for Hamas not allowing visitations. Maybe fair, maybe not. But again, the timing just sucks.
And on the stock market, after losing another 100-plus points today, the Dow is down at this moment to 9951 in after-hours trading, a significant step below the big round holding point of 10,000.
Could be a very interesting week.
