Speaking yesterday at AIPAC’s 2013 Policy Conference, outgoing Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak emphasized that the Jewish state remains committed to halting Iran’s drive to acquire nuclear weapons capability. Noting that “we’ve stated this time and again, and we mean it,” Barak explained that “[a] nuclear Iran will be the...

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The U.S. has come down hard on Turkey for Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s statements earlier this week calling Zionism a crime against humanity. Secretary of State John Kerry met with Erdogan Friday evening and scolded him for the comments, made at a conference for the U.N. Alliance of Civilizations in...

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Officials from the rival Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas this week threatened President Barack Obama with violence and “catastrophe” during his upcoming March visit to the region. Issa Qaraqe, the Palestinian minister for prisoner affairs and a member of the Western-backed Fatah faction, instructed the president to pressure Israel to...

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A 21-year-old Ethiopian immigrant to Israel has been crowned the country’s Miss Israel 2013. Yityish (Titi) Aynaw told the audience during the competition’s spoken-word portion that her candidacy was an apt demonstration of Israeli diversity: A panel of judges at the International Convention Center Haifa on Wednesday awarded the title...

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Egyptian, Palestinian, and Israeli sources tell The Tower that the Iran-backed terror group Hamas is now believed to have been responsible for Tuesday’s rocket strike on the Israeli city of Ashkelon, the first and so far only violation of the ceasefire that ended Operation Pillar of Defense in November 2012. Egyptian media,...

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Speculation continues to swirly in Israel over reports that Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah has been taken to Iran for medical treatment, possibly for cancer. Reports of Nasrallah’s ill health – which appeared on the front pages of Israel’s leading dailies Yedioth Ahronoth and Maariv earlier today – were first aired Tuesday...

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Members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps are currently in the Gaza Strip, high-level Palestinian security sources tell The Tower. The Iranians, according to our security sources, are experts in missile production, and are in Gaza to help Hamas and Islamic Jihad develop long-range missiles. Israeli security and political officials declined...

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Almost four months have passed since the end of Operation Pillar of Defense, and  Southern Israel is learning to live under new circumstances with which it’s scarcely familiar: quiet from the Gaza Strip. This time it’s not a just a fragile period of calm in which the odd Qassam rocket or...

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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...

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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...

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