Amateur video originally uploaded by Syrian opposition groups on Monday and obtained by The Associated Press claims to show a Syrian Government helicopter being shot down. The incident reportedly took place near Mennegh Air Base near Syria’s border with Turkey. If confirmed – and opposition forces have made similar claims in the...

On-again off-again Palestinian unity talks between the rival Hamas and Fatah factions are off again for the near future: Hamas has asked to postpone its next meeting with Hamas to ensure the talks will be positive, the party’s deputy politburo chief said Sunday. Mousa Abu Marzouq said in a statement...

Israel’s Defense Ministry announced today that it successfully tested Israel’s Arrow 3 anti-missile system, the latest iteration of the jointly-developed U.S.-Israeli platform designed to target and shoot down long-range missiles of the kind deployed by Syria and Iran. The Arrow system, co-produced by The Boeing Corporation and Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), is the first the...

Turkish media is reporting that renewed Israeli overtures to mend ties with Ankara – conveyed via multiple messages about hopes for a more “positive dynamic” – have, again, been declined: Turkish diplomatic sources have declined to comment on a report in a Jerusalem-based online newspaper that said efforts initiated by...

Israeli analysts and security officials are working to understand the calculations of senior Palestinian officials – including those calling on Palestinian Authority figures to “fight and even die” against Israel – who appear to be flirting with, if not encouraging, a potential third Intifada in the West Bank. Israeli Home Front Defense...

Throughout 2012 senior Palestinian leaders – Fatah, Hamas, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad – called for Palestinians to launch a third Intifada and resume violent attacks against Israel.  And as predicted, recent months have seen an uptick in orchestrated demonstrations and public violence among Palestinians targeting Israelis, including lynching attempts that reminded Israelis and observers...

With less than a week to go before Iran meets with the P5+1 to discuss its atomic program, Tehran has begun to install advanced IR-2m centrifuges at its Natanz enrichment facility (U.S. officials are describing the move as “provocative”). The installation will allow Iran to enrich uranium up to five...

Reports that Hamas is somewhere between frustrated and angry with Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood-linked government – which trickled out of Arabic-language media and were picked up by English-language Western and MidEast outlets – are gaining traction: Hamas condemned Egypt’s decision to flood smuggling tunnels linking Sinai and Gaza, according to a...

Sources in the Free Syrian Army, the main armed group fighting to overthrow the regime of Bashar al-Assad, are announcing that its soldiers have bombed two Hezbollah compounds, one in Syria and another in the Lebanese town of Hermel. If confirmed the development may mark a critical turn in Syria’s...

Nigerian officials have arrested three members of Iranian-backed terrorist cell who were gathering intelligence about potential U.S. and Israeli targets in the country and plotting to murder military and religious leaders. The cell’s 50-year old head Abdullahi Mustaphah Berende, a prominent figure in a local Shiite sect, has already confessed...