A suspected Iranian agent has been arrested for “scouting” the Israeli Embassy in Kathmandu, Nepal “with a harmful intention.” Embassy officials arrested the man and transferred him to local authorities after noticing suspicious behavior. The English-language Himalayan Times reported Saturday that Nepalese police investigators have opened an inquiry into Mohsin...

Continue Reading >>
  • Kindle

The Jerusalem Post reports that Bulgarian police last summer arrested an Iranian agent who was monitoring the Chabad Jewish center in Sofia. The agent carried a Canadian passport and reportedly entered Bulgaria from Turkey several weeks after the July 2012 Burgas bus bombing that killed five Israelis and a Bulgarian....

Continue Reading >>
  • Kindle

The U.S. State Department this week released its annual human rights report. The watchdog group NGO Monitor unpacked the report, noting the contrast between investigators’ descriptions of Israeli and Palestinian judicial systems. Palestinian Authority and Hamas security forces conduct “arbitrary arrest and associated torture and abuse” in a judicial climate...

Continue Reading >>
  • Kindle

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has reaffirmed his intention to brush off repeated objections from the United States and from the U.S.-backed Palestinian Authority, and to travel to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip later this month: Official Turkish sources told the al-Sharq al-Awsat newspaper that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan...

Continue Reading >>
  • Kindle

French media is reporting that Jordan has granted Israel the use of its airspace to monitor developments and potentially strike targets in Syria. Le Figaro reported that Amman has opened two air corridors to Israeli drones – one through southern Jordan opposite the Negev and the other in the vicinity of...

Continue Reading >>
  • Kindle

In the corridors of power in Jerusalem and Cairo, this week’s fire of two Grad rockets on Eilat came as a surprise to no one. Last week Israel deployed an Iron Dome battery to the Red Sea resort city after intelligence warnings of impending rocket attacks from Sinai. An additional...

Continue Reading >>
  • Kindle

On one hand, the United States is acting to limit spillover from the Syrian conflict. Secretary of Defense Hagel announced recently that the U.S. was deploying assets to Jordan to potentially set up “a joint task force for military operations.” As many as 200 troops from Fort Bliss will work with...

Continue Reading >>
  • Kindle

Egypt has deployed forces to the Sinai Peninsula several times since the start of this year without prior coordination with Israel. The violation of the two countries’ peace treaty was confirmed to The Tower by Israeli security officials. In other cases, according to Israeli security sources, Cairo has “coordinated” troop...

Continue Reading >>
  • Kindle

The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee yesterday unanimously passed along to the floor a resolution affirming U.S. support for Israel in the event Israel has to militarily take action to degrade Iran’s nuclear infrastructure. According to the text of the resolution on the U.S. Congress’ website, the goal of the resolution...

Continue Reading >>
  • Kindle

Rockets fired from the Sinai Peninsula slammed into Israel today and were claimed by a jihadi Salafist group operating in the territory. Hard-line Islamist groups have increasingly infiltrated the Sinai Peninsula since the 2011 overthrow of then-Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Most of the rockets were fired from Sinai, which has become increasingly...

Continue Reading >>
  • Kindle