In a recent analysis for the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, Ambassador Dore Gold writes that often when the profile of Hamas rises, “there is an effort undertaken to repackage Hamas as a moderate organization.” However, Gold argues, that Hamas’s record – in word and deed – shatters those efforts time and...

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An relatively unusual incident in Jordan – in which an angry protester on Monday hurled a pair of shoes at the country’s Prime Minister Abdullah Nsur – has refocused analyst attention on potentially widening rifts inside the monarchy, which as recently as last year was thought to be on the brink of following Egypt...

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Al Arabiya on Wednesday conveyed statements from Kuwait’s foreign minister suggesting that the bulk of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) was close to healing a rift with GCC member Qatar, which had been deepening in recent months and even years as Qatar allied itself with actors that the Gulf countries...

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Prime Minister David Cameron has ordered British intelligence agencies to look into the activities of the Muslim Brotherhood. According to the Guardian, Cameron has enlisted both MI5 -Britain’s internal security organization – and MI6 – its foreign intelligence service – to investigate the Islamist organization. The investigation will be headed...

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President Barack Obama on Friday traveled to Saudi Arabia for what had long been anticipated as a fence-mending visit, after months of increasingly public disagreements between the US and its traditional Gulf allies over Washington’s posture towards Shiite expansionism, on the one hand, and political Islamists within the Sunni world, on the other. The...

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Arab League officials over the weekend predicted that the bloc’s upcoming meeting in Kuwait will revolve around “rifts” dividing the Arab world, with both international wires and regional outlets using the phrase. Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmy gave comments on Monday that – even under interpretations that have the various...

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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...

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The Associated Press assessed last week that Hamas has “been hit by the worst economic crisis since seizing the [Gaza Strip] seven years ago,” after a series of bad geopolitical gambles – most prominently its alignment with the now-decapitated Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, but also various miscalculations involving Iran and its allies – left the...

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Veteran Jordan-based journalist Osama Al Sharif assessed on Tuesday that Jordan was unlikely to follow the lead of Egypt and some Gulf states in branding the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization, not because the Islamist group is supported by Amman – Sharif noted that Jordan’s current ruler King Abdullah II is even “less sympathetic to [the Brotherhood’s...

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The Egyptian Foreign Ministry on Wednesday described Qatar as aligned against the bulk of the Arab world and emphasized that Cairo would not be returning its ambassador to the Gulf state, on the same day that three Gulf monarchies – Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain – withdrew their own envoys from...

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