Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has denied requests from representatives of the Palestinian faction Hamas to visit “political” detainees held in West Bank prisons. The West Bank is controlled by Abbas’s own Fatah faction. The move was denounced by senior Hamas representative Aziz Dweik, who is viewed by Hamas as...

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Analysis to the effect that political responsibility over the Gaza Strip would moderate the Iran-backed Islamist terror group Hamas — a mainstay of certain strains of foreign policy reasoning — were undermined this week when the group sought to enforce gender segregation on boys and girls starting in grade four....

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Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan risks destabilizing the region and alienating the United States as he scrambles to deal with “hardline domestic criticism” in the aftermath of having been diplomatically out-maneuvered by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in settling on terms for restoring ties between Israel and Turkey. At...

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The Palestinian Authority and the Fatah faction that controls it are facing mounting human rights criticism after a West Bank court upheld a one-year prison sentence for a Bethlehem journalist convicted of defaming PA President Mahmoud Abbas. Mamdouh Hamamreh posted the photo of Abbas to Facebook in 2010, alongside the image...

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Gaza-based Hamas leader Mahmoud Al-Zahar lashed out earlier this week at unnamed “Palestinian security institutions” that have been transferring “fabricated information” to Egyptian media in order to undermine relations between the Iran-backed terror group and Cairo. The declaration is the latest in a series of moves by Hamas leaders, who...

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Palestinian human rights groups are blasting Hamas for banning several members of the rival Palestinian Fatah faction from traveling outside the Gaza Strip. The Iran-backed terror group has controlled the territory since it expelled most Fatah officials from it in a bloody 2007 battle. The Fatah officials who stayed inside the...

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Barack Obama has traveled a long way over the past four years in his Middle East policy. In other words: The Mideast has traveled a long way since the president took office. The tête-à-tête vis-à-vis Israel has now become hugs and kisses, and Obama is gradually bidding adieu to his...

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President Obama spoke to a crowd of Israeli students earlier today in what the New York Times described as “an enthusiastically welcomed speech.” The president laid out the case for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict – a stance supported by an overwhelming majority of the Israeli public and...

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U.S. President Barack Obama is today visiting the West Bank town of Ramallah, where the Palestinian Authority government is housed. The visit is meant to highlights the president’s commitment to the two-state solution and creation of a Palestinian state, but for PA officials – who already had low expectations for the...

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Reflecting on his recent interview with Jordanian King Abdullah II, The Atlantic national correspondent Jeffrey Goldberg described the monarch as “decidedly unimpressed” with Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi. The King spoke candidly with Goldberg on a range of issues, but expressed particular frustration that Morsi fixates on Israel – rather than on Palestinian...

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