Last week Iran’s Guardian Council – which is charged with vetting candidates who want to run for office, and from which there is no appeal – approved just 8 of some 680 candidates who applied to run in Iran’s June 14th election. Diplomats speaking to AFP were blunt about how...

Hezbollah’s stronghold in Beirut was struck by two missiles on Sunday in the aftermath of a fiery speech by Hassan Nasrallah. The Hezbollah chief committed the Iran-backed terror group to bringing victory to the embattled Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad. The New Yorker described Nasrallah’s speech as the formal declaration...

Air-raid sirens blared across Israel Monday afternoon in the first of two home front drills simulating a massive missile attack on the country. The first siren was aimed at practicing safety measures for day cares, schools, and workplaces. A later evening siren is intended for families. The drill, dubbed “National...

Secretary of State John Kerry is wrapping up a trip to the Middle East in which he unveiled an initiative, designed to jumpstart the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, under which Palestinian areas would be given a $4 billion economic boost. The Palestinian reaction was less than enthusiastic. An economic advisor for...

In 2005 Hamas won municipal elections in the West Bank city of Qalqilya, triggering declarations from some observers to the effect that power would force the Iran-backed terror organization to govern pragmatically. When the organization won the Palestinian legislative elections in 2006, the same analysis was expanded to encompass hopes...

Israeli innovation can help Asian countries cope with their most critical demographic, social, and environmental threats, according to participants at the recently concluded Israel-Asia Summit in Tel Aviv. an Indian official explained to Israeli outlets how the Jewish state’s innovation culture – and the products it produces – can help...

After having been told by President Barack Obama to rein in Hezbollah, Lebanese President Michel Sleiman blasted the group late last week for dragging Lebanon into the Syrian conflict: “The resistance is more noble and more important than anything, and should not get bogged down in the sands of dissension,...

British Foreign Minister William Hague signed a memorandum of understanding with Israel’s Minister of  Science, Technology and Space, Yaakov Peri, yesterday, cementing the scientific cooperation between the two countries: In a ceremony at the Hebrew University on Thursday, attended by British Ambassador to Israel Matthew Gould, the ministers inked the...

This week’s campaign to free seven kidnapped Egyptian security officials in the Sinai Peninsula exposed deep rifts between the Egyptian army and the country’s Muslim Brotherhood-linked government. The regime and its Brotherhood allies are preventing the army from uprooting the terrorist networks in the territory. A top jihadist explains the Brotherhood’s...

Diplomats are beginning to react to a confidential IAEA report leaked this week that heightened concerns that Iran was using negotiations to stall for time and lock-in critical nuclear infrastructure. Iran’s ambassador to the IAEA, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, of course dismissed the report’s significance. State Department Acting Deputy Spokesperson Patrick...