Israeli Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz spoke at the annual Herzliya Conference Monday evening, outlining a broad array of threats facing Israel and the region. In between highlighting ongoing efforts by the Iran-backed terror groups Hezbollah and Hamas to penetrate Israel and attack Israeli civilians, Gantz in particular...

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King Abdullah II of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan has reappointed incumbent prime minister Abdullah Ensour and asked him to form a new government, the sixth time since the Arab Spring began two years ago that Abdullah has appointed or reappointed a prime minister.  Ensour – who has also played technocratic roles in...

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Journalist Michael Totten, evaluating the situation from on the ground in Lebanon, reports that the country is “gearing up to explode” due to sectarian tensions ignited by the Syrian conflict across the border. The Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah has long been operating in Syria on behalf of the Bashar al-Assad...

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The Arab League decided last week to allow its member states to arm the Syrian opposition. Theoretically, until that decision, the League had — at least publicly — limited its members to giving humanitarian aid to the rebels. This week’s decision may not fundamentally change the nature of the Syrian...

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The United Nations is expressing hopes that 21 Filipno U.N. peacekeepers captured this week by Syrian rebels will be released on Saturday. A bid to secure their release was aborted on Friday, and they are now set to be freed tomorrow during two-hour truce between the Syrian army and the...

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Al Qaeda-linked fighters in Syria are scouting and filming IDF patrols along Israel’s border with Syria, according to a boastful video uploaded by the jihadists: Members of the al-Furqan group — affiliated with the global al-Qaeda organization which has acted in Yemen and Iraq — were filmed close to Israel’s...

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Syrian army forces have reportedly fired mortar shells on one of the world’s oldest synagogues. Syrian opposition forces released footage showing damage to the roof of the the 2,000-year-old Jobar Synagogue outside of Damascus, and blaming the destruction on forces loyal to the regime of Bashar al-Assad. Jewish tradition says...

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Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations Ron Prosor is stressing the need to enhance security along the Israeli-Syrian border, after three mortars launched from Syria landed deep inside Israeli territory this weekend. In a letter to the U.N. Security Council calling for action, Prosor stressed that Israel would be forced to take...

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A long-feared full-blown sectarian war in Syria and Lebanon is inching closer to becoming a reality, with Syrian opposition forces threatening to make a border area “a graveyard” for Hezbollah. The Shiite group and the largely Sunni Free Syrian Army (FSA) exchanged rhetorical and actual blows this week, in the...

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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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