Israel and Palestine are momentarily at a ceasefire, but the potential reasoning behind the recess could have some real international implications. Israel's Debka reports that the pause in fighting comes after the US promised to send troops to Sinai.

According to Debka, US troops will soon be en route to the Sinai peninsula, Egyptian territory in North Africa that's framed by the Suez Canal on the West and Israel on the East. In its northeast most point, Sinai is but a stone's throw from Palestinian-controlled Gaza, and according to Debka, Hamas fighters there have been relying on Iranian arms smugglers to supply them with weaponry by way of Egypt.

Debka reports this week that Sinai will soon be occupied by US troops, who were promised by President Barack Obama to Israel's leaders as a condition that a ceasefire be called. Once deployed, the Americans will intervene with the rumored arms trade orchestrated by Iranians, ideally cutting off supplies for Hamas while at the same time serving as a thorn in the side of Iran.

"Once the missile and arms consignments depart Iranian ports or Libyan arms bazaars, Tehran has no direct control of their transit from point to point through Egypt until they reach Sinai and their Gaza destination," Debka reports. "All the same, a US special forces operation against the Sinai segment of the Iranian smuggling route would count as the first overt American military strike against an Iranian military interest."

Hamas, 1 - Netanyahu, 0

The big news this Thanksgiving holiday is the announcement of the Gaza ceasefire. Will it last beyond the time you're eating desert and trying to recover from a massive Tryptophane overdose? Don't be so sure....

The reason for this uncertainty is because Hamas comes out the winner, on all fronts, and Netanyahu just as clearly the loser. What did the Israelis achieve? Nothing. Hamas, on the other hand, secured growing international recognition, as Arab state officials who had once snubbed Hamas trekked to Gaza to show solidarity. More important, Hamas struck at Tel Aviv itself, taking the Israelis by surprise and showing they aren't the helpless victims the Israelis thought they were, an important factor in mobilizing Arab public opinion.

As far as the battle for international public opinion is concerned, the lopsided nature of the conflict - with all the military assets in Israel's favor - and those dead Palestinian children being pulled from the ruins undid decades of Israeli propaganda. No campaign of internet hasbara can hide the face that children under ten made up 30 percent of the dead in Gaza - an astonishing and horrifying figure.

Abdel-Hakim al-Hasidi, the Libyan rebel leader, has said jihadists who fought against allied troops in Iraq are on the front lines of the battle against Muammar Gaddafi's regime.

In an interview with the Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore, Mr al-Hasidi admitted that he had recruited "around 25" men from the Derna area in eastern Libya to fight against coalition troops in Iraq. Some of them, he said, are "today are on the front lines in Adjabiya".

Mr al-Hasidi insisted his fighters "are patriots and good Muslims, not terrorists," but added that the "members of al-Qaeda are also good Muslims and are fighting against the invader".

Gaza Strip- Israeli troops fired Friday to push back Gaza crowds surging toward Israel's border fence with the Hamas-ruled territory, killing one Palestinian and wounding 19 in the first violence since a truce between Israel and Hamas took hold a day earlier.

Hamas security tried to defuse the situation and keep the crowds away from the border, signaling the incident is unlikely to jeopardize the Egyptian-brokered cease-fire. The truce, which calls for an end to Gaza rocket fire on Israel and Israeli airstrikes on Gaza, came after eight days of cross-border fighting, the bloodiest between Israel and Hamas in four years.

On Friday, hundreds of Palestinians approached Israel's border fence in several locations in southern Gaza.

In the past, Israel's military barred Palestinians from getting close to the fence, and soldiers routinely opened fire on violators to enforce a 300-meter-wide no-go zone meant to prevent infiltrations into Israel. Since the cease-fire, growing numbers of Gazans have entered the no-go zone, testing expectations that such restrictions would now be lifted.

In one incident captured by Associated Press video, several dozen Palestinians, most of them young men, approached the fence, coming close to a group of Israeli soldiers standing on the other side. Some Palestinians briefly talked to the soldiers, while others appeared to be taunting them with chants of "God is Great" and "Morsi, Morsi," in praise of Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi, whose mediation led to the truce. At one point, a soldier shouted in Hebrew, "Go there, before I shoot you," and pointed away from the fence, toward Gaza. The soldier then dropped to one knee, assuming a firing position. Eventually, a burst of automatic fire was heard, but it was not clear whether any of the casualties were from this incident.

Most of those approaching the fence were young men, but the crowds also included farmers hoping they could once again farm lands in the buffer zone. Speaking by phone from the buffer zone, 19-year-old Ali Abu Taimah said he and his father were checking three acres of family land that have been fallow for several years.


"When we go to our land, we are telling the occupation (Israel) that we are not afraid at all," he said.

Gaza health official Ashraf al-Kidra said a 20-year-old man was killed and 19 people were wounded by Israeli fire near the border.

Israel's military said roughly 300 Palestinians approached the security fence at several locations in southern Gaza, tried to damage it and cross into Israel. Soldiers fired warning shots in the air to distance the Palestinians from the fence, but after they refused to move back, troops fired at their legs, the military said. It also said a Palestinian infiltrated into Israel in the course of the unrest, but he was returned to Gaza.

The truce allowed both Hamas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to step back from the brink of a full-fledged war. Over eight days, Israel's aircraft carried out some 1,500 strikes on Hamas-linked targets, while Gaza fighters peppered Israel with roughly the same number of rockets.

The fighting killed 166 Palestinians, including dozens of civilians, and six Israelis.

In Cairo, Egypt is hosting separate talks with Israeli and Hamas envoys on the next phase of the cease-fire - a new border deal for blockaded Gaza. Hamas demands lifting of all border restrictions, while Israel insists that Hamas must halt weapons smuggling to the territory.

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says the Israeli regime was created to wage wars, stoke instability and foment discord in the Middle East in order to help the arrogant powers maintain control over the region.

"The main mission of the Zionist regime is to create wars and conflicts and it has been created to stoke division and wage wars in the region so that the hegemons can control the region," Ahmadinejad said at a press conference in Pakistan on Thursday.

He was speaking on the sidelines of the summit of the Group of Eight Developing Countries (D8) in Pakistan on Thursday.

Israeli media say an Iron Dome missile fired to intercept Palestinian Grad rockets missed its target and landed near one of the busiest highways in the Israeli city of Ashdod on November 21.

The Iron Dome missile shield marked another failure as its missile went in a wrong direction toward a busy highway instead of heading upwards to the Palestinian rockets, and caused an explosion only 30 meters from the road, the media stated.

An Egypt-mediated ceasefire agreement on Wednesday ended eight days of Israeli attacks on the besieged Gaza Strip that killed more than 160 Palestinians and injured about 1,200 others.

At least one Palestinian has been killed and seven others injured by Israeli fire in the southern Gaza Strip despite an Egypt-mediated ceasefire.

Medical sources said a 21-year-old Palestinian lost his life on Friday as Israeli forces opened fire in the village of Khuzaa, east of Khan Yunis.

The Palestinian emergency service identified the dead man as Abdelhadi Qdeih Anwar, a farmer who wanted to check on his farm which lies adjacent to the heavily-guarded border with the occupied lands.

Reports say seven other Palestinians also suffered gunshot wounds.

Only 36% of Singaporeans report feeling positive or negative emotions on a daily basis, compared to 60% in the Philippines

Never mind its temperate 28C weather, low unemployment rate and high per-capita GDP - Singapore is the most emotionless society in the world, according to a new Gallup poll, beating the traditionally po-faced Georgia, Lithuania and Russia in a survey of more than 150 nations.

Asking respondents questions such as "Did you feel well-rested yesterday?", "Were you treated with respect all day yesterday?" and "Did you smile or laugh a lot yesterday?", the survey found that Singaporeans were the least likely to reveal experiencing any emotions at all.

Just 36% of Singaporeans reported feeling positive or negative emotions on a daily basis, while 60% of Filipinos recorded regularly feeling both - the highest response rate of any country worldwide.