Israel’s internal security agency, the Shin Bet, announced Sunday that it had broken up eleven plots to kidnap Israeli soldiers since September 2013. The Times of Israel reports: Of the foiled attempts, “the majority were driven by prisoners in order to use as a bargaining chip for their release.” Half...

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Yesterday the Palestinian Authority announced the formation of a unity government together with the terrorist organization Hamas. Though State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki announced that the U.S. would “work with” the new regime, Israeli officials as well as an array of U.S. lawmakers are deeply skeptical that doing so would be...

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Deepening concerns that Monday’s newly announced Palestinian unity government locks in a “Hezbollah model” for any future Palestinian state – a dynamic that has among other things proven terminal to Lebanese efforts to create robust political institutions – made their way into the day’s State Department briefing: QUESTION: The –...

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Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) last week released U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Anne Patterson’s congressional testimony from April erroneously claiming that the Palestinian Authority’s funding of terrorists is because “they have to provide for the families.” On April 29, Patterson presented the administration’s Middle East and North Africa budget request for...

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As the Palestinians were finalizing the formation of their unity government in recent days, U.S. lawmakers were discussing the legal ramifications of continued American aid to the Palestinian Authority. Secretary of State John Kerry told PBS last Thursday that Israel’s stance toward an expected unity government between the rival Palestinian Hamas and...

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The Palestinians are pulling the wool over the eyes of the international community by describing the new Palestinian Authority government as a cabinet of technocrats, according to Israel’s Strategic Affairs Minister Yuval Steinitz. The most important thing is not who are the personalities, or the ministers, but who sent them,...

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While Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas says it will be business as usual with Israel after the expected formation of a new Palestinian government this week, one of Hamas’ leading officials told reporters on Saturday that security cooperation with Israel will not continue. The Hamas-Fatah unity government was sworn in earlier...

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The Lebanese-Shiite Hezbollah may have set up a branch in the Gaza Strip, according to the Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar. The flag and logo of an organization that was launched a few days ago in the Gaza Strip suggest a Hezbollah now exists in Gaza. The organization is called al-Sabirin (the...

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Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas early this morning announced the formation of a Palestinian government agreed to by the rival Fatah and Hamas factions. The new cabinet is made up of 17 cabinet ministers who were sworn in despite what local Reuters bureau chief Crispian Balmer described as a...

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A “top-ranking overseas operative of Hamas” was arrested last week, according to a report Friday in the Times of Israel. The operative gave Israel’s internal security agency, the Shin Bet, details about how Hamas operates inside of Israel. According the report, Mahmoud Toameh “gave the security agency a wealth of details” on...

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