The State Department’s new strategy for fighting terrorism has been criticized by experts for failing to specifically mention the threat of Islamic extremism. The Joint Strategy on Countering Violent Extremism (.pdf), which was published last week, outlines the government’s official diplomatic anti-terror plan. In his introduction to the document, which was co-written with USAID, the U.S. government’s foreign aid bureau, Secretary...

State Department Spokesman John Kirby admitted on Wednesday that the department lied last month about doctoring a video of a December 2013 press briefing that included a discussion of the Obama administration’s diplomacy with Iran. Contrary to previous assertions by the State Department, Kirby acknowledged that the exchange was deleted from...

One of the stars of the Netflix hit series Orange is the New Black is visiting Israel in honor of Tel Aviv’s gay pride week and seems to be amazed by the attractiveness of local women. “There are apparently no ugly women in Israel,” Lea DeLaria told Ynet shortly after arriving on Tuesday. Int'l...

The announcement that a spokeswoman for the Iran-backed regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad will be participating in a meeting sponsored by an anti-ISIS group in Washington D.C. on Thursday has provoked outrage on social media. Dr. Bouthaina Shaaban, who was designated by the Treasury department since August 2011 for being one of three “principal defenders of...

Italy has sent its largest ever delegation of researchers and academics to meet with their counterparts in Israel this week, defying calls by anti-Israel campaigners to cut ties with the Jewish state. Nearly 100 Italian academics, including representatives of the Italian Conference of Rectors, a group of the leaders of major Italian...

The leading international online payment service PayPal has shut down the account of France’s largest anti-Israel boycott group, Benjamin Weinthal of The Jerusalem Post reported on Tuesday. Weinthal confirmed the closure by clicking on the PayPal donation link on the website of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions campaign in France and getting the...

In mid-May, a small strip of the Mediterranean coast was transformed into an arena of coexistence and fun as the Israeli martial-arts nonprofit organization Budo for Peace hosted its second annual International Martial Arts Friendship Training. Martial-arts experts from Jordan, Japan and Senegal joined the gathering of Israeli Jews, Muslims,...

With concern rising after a string of terror attacks, airport representatives from 40 countries will visit Israel’s Ben-Gurion International Airport next month to learn about Ben-Gurion’s innovative security procedures. Ben-Gurion is one of the world’s safest airports—no flight departing Israel has ever been hijacked, and there hasn’t been a terrorist attack at Ben-Gurion since 1972. The...

Iran has given messaging apps one year to move its storage of user data inside the country, raising concerns that Iranians using the apps could have their data accessed by the government. Iran’s Supreme Council of Cyberspace, whose members are appointed by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, issued a directive on Sunday warning that...

The election last week of 89-year-old Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati to head Iran’s Assembly of Experts, which will choose the country’s next Supreme Leader to replace Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, shows that “whoever follows the increasingly frail Mr. Khamenei as Supreme Leader is unlikely to alter the regime’s core anti-Western philosophy,” The Wall Street Journal editorial board wrote (Google link) Monday. Jannati...