Israeli officials are urging the United States to release ten Apache helicopters for sale to the Egyptian army. A high-ranking official in Jerusalem said Israel clarified that supplying the helicopters is crucial to Egypt’s fight Against jihadist organizations in the Sinai, and will improve regional security. Collaboration on security between...

Continue Reading >>
  • Kindle

One of Hezbollah’s closest allies, lawmaker and retired army general Michel Aoun, says there is a “serious possibility” he will run for the presidency of Lebanon in the spring election. This would add to the anti-Western alliance’s ever-increasing influence over Lebanese politics and the country’s military. Aoun is currently showing...

Continue Reading >>
  • Kindle

Before the last election in Israel in January 2013, American punditry was rife with speculation about the “Shift to the Right” among Israelis, according to which the Jewish state had morphed into an unrecognizable haven of unbridled nationalism. After the elections shattered the myth, suggesting a far more plausible shift...

Continue Reading >>
  • Kindle

A war of words between leading Palestinian figures has erupted in recent days–underscoring the virulent anti-Israel rejectionism pervading the Palestinian leadership. Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas accused the PA’s former security chief in Gaza, Mohammed Dahlan, of being a “spy” for Israel, and accused Dahlan’s man in the Ain...

Continue Reading >>
  • Kindle

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday told army radio that Jerusalem would “act forcefully to preserve Israel’s security,” after a blast near the country’s Golan Heights border with Syria wounded three soldiers in what The Guardian contextualized as “one of several incidents this month on Israel’s northern borders with Syria and Lebanon.”...

Continue Reading >>
  • Kindle

The Syrian army’s capture of what had been the rebel stronghold of Yabroud – accomplished with critical assistance from Hezbollah, to the point where the battle is being grudgingly described on social media as a “triumph” for the Iran-backed terror group – is likely to increase blowback against Lebanese targets, according to...

Continue Reading >>
  • Kindle

Former Lebanese President Amine Gemayel has issued a stark warning about the fate of Christians in the Middle East, endangered by what he called “the rise of religious extremists.” Speaking last week at an event sponsored by Christian Solidarity International (CSI), Gemayel, who is himself Maronite Catholic, called on the international community...

Continue Reading >>
  • Kindle

Controversy swirled last week regarding testimony given to Congress by Secretary of State John Kerry, in which Kerry told the House Foreign Relations Committee that “I think it’s a mistake for some people to be raising again and again” Israel’s demand that the Palestinians recognize the country’s Jewish character “as...

Continue Reading >>
  • Kindle

The New York Times reported on Monday that Hezbollah’s warfighting in Syria is bolstering the organization’s capabilities, despite whatever losses it may be suffering, and that Israeli military officials now assess that the Iran-backed terror group’s involvement in the nearly three-year-old conflict has become “a major burden… but also a major advantage.”...

Continue Reading >>
  • Kindle

Palestinians in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip launched at least 60 rockets at Israeli population centers around 5 p.m. local time Wednesday, triggering sirens across the country’s Gaza envelop and deepening worries that Palestinian terror groups may be positioning themselves to start another round of fighting with the Jewish state. Early...

Continue Reading >>
  • Kindle