Stay Informed

Sign up and be the first to stay abreast of developments in Israel and the Middle East

Europe

Iran will “take legal action” against the United States if the U.S. prevents an Iranian airline with ties to terrorist groups from flying recently purchased planes, Reuters reported today. Iran’s Mahan Air, blacklisted by Washington, bought eight second-hand Airbus A340s and one Airbus A321 in May in defiance of U.S. sanctions....

Continue Reading >>

Diplomacy

The United States has cut funding to a program “intended [to] foster an independent moderate Shiite voice” in Lebanon, leading critics to fault the move as an effort to appease Iran, The Wall Street Journal reported (Google link) Tuesday. The Hayya Bina program in question was funded through the International Republican Institute,...

Continue Reading >>

Israel

A picture purporting to show an Israeli soldier pointing a gun at a Palestinian youth has been exposed as a fake, The Algemeiner reported Monday. An Israeli named Roi Rahmani found a subsequent selfie featuring both the “soldier” and the “Palestinian youth” while searching online. Rahmani, who posted the photo and its explanation...

Continue Reading >>

Diplomacy

A United Nations panel found that Western nations have systematically ignored Iranian violations of international sanctions so as not to jeopardize the talks over Iran’s illicit nuclear program, Bloomberg News reported today. The sanctions were put in place because of the country’s nuclear proliferation and support for terror. “The current situation with reporting...

Continue Reading >>

Israel

Israel is one of the top five happiest countries in the world, according to a new Better Life Index report by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). “Israelis are more satisfied with their lives than the OECD average. When asked to rate their general satisfaction with life on a...

Continue Reading >>

Human Rights

The second hearing in the espionage trial of Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian was held behind closed doors in Tehran on Monday, the Post reported. The first hearing occurred two weeks ago. Iran’s semi-official Tasnim News Agency said Rezaian, a California native who has dual U.S. and Iranian citizenship because his father was...

Continue Reading >>

Diplomacy

The United Nations’ special envoy to Syria has estimated that Iran is spending billions to prop up the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Eli Lake reported today for Bloomberg View. On Monday, a spokeswoman for the U.N. special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, told me that the envoy estimates Iran spends $6...

Continue Reading >>

Diplomacy

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Yukiya Amano once again called on Iran to cooperate with his agency’s investigation into Iran’s past nuclear work on Monday, and said that IAEA inspectors would have to be in Iran for “years and years” in order to ensure that Iran’s nuclear program is...

Continue Reading >>

Europe

Turkey’s Islamist party, the Justice and Development Party (AKP), lost its thirteen-year parliamentary majority on Sunday, negating President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s efforts to consolidate his power by altering the constitution to increase the authority of the presidency. While receiving 41% of the vote, more than any other party, the AKP will not have...

Continue Reading >>

Featured

Senior Hamas official Mahmoud al-Zahar said that armed resistance against Israel is not negotiable, according to a report published on the Saudi-backed website Alresalah on Monday. Armed resistance is not a political issue that may be negotiated, said al-Zahhar in a meeting organized by Hamas and the Islamic Jihad in...

Continue Reading >>