At least six people were killed and 70 more were injured last Friday when Islamists launched three attacks against Cairo police stations, including against the city’s main headquarters, and by the end of the day, outside a Giza city movie theater. The attacks were claimed by Ansar Jerusalem, a Sinai-based Al Qaeda-linked jihadist...

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The Telegraph Wednesday described the Turkish government as having launched “the biggest purge of the judiciary in the country’s history,” with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP) “firing and reassigning senior judges and prosecutors,” in what has escalated into a near-existential struggle between the AKP...

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Reuters reported last week that Israeli Energy Minister Silvan Shalom will attend the Jan. 20-22 World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi, the latest in what is becoming a steady stream of evidence signaling warming ties between Jerusalem and traditional U.S. allies in the Arab world. Energy Minister Silvan Shalom is set to attend the Jan. 20-22...

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A now-familiar pattern of judiciary action followed by anti-judiciary purges – which has in recent weeks marked the open political warfare being waged by rival Islamist camps inside Turkey – expanded this week as police forces raided the headquarters of the Turkish Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH), a group with close...

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Lebanese outlet Ya Libnan reported yesterday that Turkey’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) is attempting to “increase control over [I]nternet access at a time when the government is also tightening its grip on the country’s legal institutions.” But some critics have alleged that the legislative initiative is part of a general trend in...

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Israel Hayom Friday published an interview with Israeli General Tamir Yadai, the commander of the Israeli military’s West Bank forces, in which the general confirms that Hamas’s terror attempts have increased in tempo and that the group’s campaign is being “directed from Gaza via Turkey.” “Between April and July, we really saw...

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A midnight purge of 350 Ankara police officers has deepened worries that the political warfare shaking the country – which has pitted the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) against judiciary and police figures linked to U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen – will significantly erode the robustness and legitimacy of Turkey’s...

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The Commerce Department scrambled yesterday to issue what Reuters described as “a rare emergency order” designed to block a Turkish-based company from illegally passing along two U.S.-built commercial jet engines to Iran’s Pouya airline. The broad order – which names multiple companies and would impose crippling consequences for any violations – comes amid...

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A top adviser to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan last week posted to Twitter what observers described as thinly-veiled death threats against opponents of Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) government, deepening concerns that the open political warfare which has been rocking the country may escalate further. Judiciary figures...

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The Washington Post this weekend began openly worrying that the political crisis shaking Turkey – in which a corruption probe driven by judiciary officials linked to U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen has ensnared elites from Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP), who have in turn responded by moving to...

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