Analysis of Israeli reactions to Netanyahu’s speech has been tangled. The BBC, for instance, asserted that “Israeli media [was] unconvinced by PM Netanyahu’s UN speech” and then linked to an article in which Israeli media outlets were quoted expressing doubts that the international community would be convinced by Netanyahu’s speech....

U.S. lawmakers had already reacted poorly to the “antagonistic” speech given by Iranian president Hassan Rouhani at the United Nations General Assembly last week. Then the office of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei literally published an infographic explaining that Khamenei’s recent and celebrated speech promoting “heroic flexibility” meant among other things...

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reports that hundreds of Al Qaeda-linked jihadists from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) advanced overnight toward a Turkish border crossing. The move comes shortly after the group battled with elements of the more moderate Western-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA). Meanwhile...

A controversial decision by E.U. foreign ministers to cut off projects with Israeli-Jewish communities beyond Israel’s 1948 armistice lines may face additional complications, as legal scholars are pointing to deep contradictions within E.U. practices. The guidelines regarding those communities have in recent weeks been blasted by top international figures –...

Reconciliation between the Palestinian Hamas and Fatah factions has traditionally been treated as a prerequisite to the creation of a viable Palestinian state. Hamas controls the Gaza Strip and Fatah controls Palestinian portions of the West Bank, and all are territories that the Palestinians reserve for a single Palestinian state....

The Palestinian Hamas faction has spent the last few months in something of a freefall, finding itself almost totally isolated regionally and losing control inside the Gaza Strip. The Iran-backed terror group has sought to restore its visibility via spectacular terror attacks, and has sought to reassert domestic control by...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke this afternoon to the United Nations General Assembly, questioning the assurances being voiced in some corners of the foreign policy community that newly inaugurated Iranian president Hassan Rouhani was willing or able to alter what is widely believed to be an Iranian drive to...

Damascus has ruled out talks with a bulk of the opposition forces battling to overthrow the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria, excluding among others the Western-backed Syrian National Coalition (SNC) and calling into question the viability of peace talks scheduled to take place between various factions in November. “Assad is...

Israeli officials over the weekend released details regarding the arrest of an Iranian-Belgian citizen accused of conducting extensive espionage against Israeli and American targets inside the Jewish state, deepening concerns regarding the scope of Iranian terror networks and the sophistication of Iranian tradecraft. Ali Mansouri, in his mid-50s, was arrested...

The New York Times reports that Western sanctions against Iran have put the country on the brink of economic collapse, with restrictions on financial transactions in particular having created severe hard currency shortages. Businesspeople in Iran have seen this coming and have been adapting, said one economic analyst, who asked...