Turkey has appointed former Ramallah Consul General Sakir Ozkan Torunlar ambassador to the “State of Palestine,” the latest in a long line of diplomatic gambits which have put Ankara at odds with Israel. The announcement comes days after Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan called Zionism a “crime against humanity”...

The United Nations is expressing hopes that 21 Filipno U.N. peacekeepers captured this week by Syrian rebels will be released on Saturday. A bid to secure their release was aborted on Friday, and they are now set to be freed tomorrow during two-hour truce between the Syrian army and the...

Another video of Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood officials calling for the eradication of Israel has been unearthed. This one shows Saad El-Katatni, now chairman of the Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), calling for “the destruction of Israel” and declaring that “the peoples are ready [for] jihad.” The footage was taken at...

Hamas is complaining over a February arrest sweep in the West Bank, conducted by the Palestinian Authority, that netted 66 of the Iran-backed terror group’s operatives. Those detained included 32 who had once been held in Israeli prisons. An additional 38 Hamas members and supporters had been summoned for interrogation....

Saudi Arabia is blasting Iran for using negotiations to stall for time while Tehran advances its atomic program, echoing recent statements made by U.S., E.U, and U.N. diplomats, Israeli officials, the head of the IAEA, and top U.S. military officials. Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal made the point while hosting his...

Israel last night hosted an evening of music in the hall of the United Nations General Assembly, designed to highlight Israeli diversity and to emphasize Israel’s desire for peace with its neighbors. The “Tunes for Peace Concert” program featured one of Israel’s most popular and acclaimed singers, Iranian-born Rita Yahan-Farouz,...

McClatchy foreign policy reporter Hannah Allam is tweeting that the State Department will defer presenting an International Women of Courage Award to Egyptian Samira Ibrahim in light of lingering questions over several controversial tweets written by Ibrahim. A scandal over the award broke open yesterday, when The Weekly Standard published...

Britain’s consul-general based in East Jerusalem Sir Vincent Fean was forced to flee a West Bank university Tuesday as an angry mob of students became violent, lunging at the diplomat, swarming him and attacking his vehicle, preventing him from delivering a scheduled address on campus. Although Fean appeared to escape uninjured, The Associated Press reports...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reportedly told leaders of the religious Shas party that key secular parties refuse to sit with them or with other religious parties such as United Torah Judaism, creating near-certain odds that Netanyahu is likely form his next governing coalition in the absence of religious parties for...

Sanctions are not stopping Iran’s atomic program, the top U.S. general responsible for the Middle East told a Senate panel Wednesday, and if necessary, Israel has the intention and means to degrade the program without American help. The Times of Israel picked up what the paper described as a little-noticed...