Building on his recapture of the Eastern Ghouta suburb after a long and bloody siege that ended with an alleged chemical weapons attack, Syrian dictator Bashar Assad on Tuesday began the final battle for control of Damascus with artillery strikes on the last rebel positions near the city.
The left targeted Laura Ingraham because she teased a teenager. It ignored Geraldo Rivera when he appeared to excuse Palestinian terror against Israelis.
Contents: Gaza Palestinians burn tires to hide protests from Israel’s army; Hamas and Fatah/PLO criticized for contradictory strategies
In the wake of a remarkable statement of support for Israel’s right to exist by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, reigning King Salman bin Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia on Tuesday reaffirmed “the Kingdom’s steadfast position toward the Palestinian issue and the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people to an independent state with Jerusalem as its capital.”
In an interview with the Atlantic conducted from the compound of the Saudi ambassador in Washington, who happens to be his brother, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman offered strong criticism of Iran and some thoughts about the religious, cultural, and economic upheaval in progress in Saudi Arabia. In one remarkable exchange, MBS recognized the right of Israel to exist – a bold step for any Arab leader, let alone the next guardian of Mecca and Medina.
Contents: Gaza Palestinian ‘Land Day’ demonstrations lead to violence with Israel’s army; Fears grow of resumption of 2014 Gaza war
TEL AVIV – Thousands of Palestinians will gather at the border with Gaza on Friday and set-up a “tent city” for a six-week-long protest “to demand the right of return to the homes and villages that they were expelled from in 1948,” Ahmad Abu Ratima, an organizer of the protest, told The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday.
TEL AVIV – Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman on Sunday warned that the homefront by the border with Syria and Lebanon in Israel’s north was not adequately prepared for a potential war.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman came to Washington to meet President Donald Trump last week, and was lauded for many of the reforms he is undertaking in Saudi Arabia. Many of these, such as improving the rights of women, are commendable, but the country still has a long way to go in the area of human rights.
TEL AVIV – Israeli Military Intelligence chief Maj. Gen. Herzl Halevi on Sunday warned of a possible “explosion” by the Palestinians ahead of Israel’s 70th Independence Day.
A group of Palestinians from Gaza infiltrated into Israel and tried to damage machinery being used to construct a new anti-tunnel barrier around the coastal enclave on Saturday night, the army said.
The United Nations received pledges Thursday of nearly $100 million in new funding for the UN relief agency for Palestinians after the US slashed its aid, but it is still facing a nearly $350 million shortfall this year.
Like the foreign policy establishment he represented, Rex Tillerson refused to abandon the false belief that nothing can be done without PLO approval.
TEL AVIV – President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and the subsequent transfer of his country’s embassy there constituted “shock therapy” against Palestinian rejectionism, which is the real obstacle to peace, Israel’s ambassador to the U.S. Ron Dermer said at a Senate event on Tuesday.
TEL AVIV – The Trump administration will move ahead with projects in the Gaza Strip with or without the Palestinian Authority if its chairman Mahmoud Abbas continues to boycott the U.S., senior administration officials said Tuesday.
TEL AVIV – Officials from the UN agency for Palestinian refugees will meet in Rome with world powers on Thursday in an urgent attempt to alleviate the crisis it faces after the U.S. withheld hundreds of millions of dollars in funding earlier this year.
TEL AVIV – A Kuwaiti parliament speaker who called Israeli lawmakers “child killers” and ordered them to leave an international gathering of parliamentarians was awarded the status of “Personality of the Year 2018” by a Palestinian group on Saturday, a move that was apparently “blessed” by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
TEL AVIV – The New York Times last month debated publishing an oped by an Israeli settler leader over fears that the piece, which envisions alternatives to the two-state solution, qualified as “hate speech” for “denying personhood to the Palestinians,” a leaked transcript describing a Times editorial meeting showed.
TEL AVIV – Shakespeare was right when he conjured Shylock to describe Jews as deceitful and greedy, Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party claimed in a recent oped.
TEL AVIV – Palestinians are becoming more extreme and an increasing number of them support terror against Israel, a new poll published on Sunday found.
TEL AVIV — Fatah criticized the Hamas terrorist group on Wednesday after spokespeople for Gaza’s Hamas rulers said that Palestinians should be preparing for life after Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and that the PA has finished its historic role.
Al Jazeera Arabic TV is once again facing sharp criticism from Palestinians in particular, and Arabs in general, for interviewing an Israeli official.
President Donald Trump had a phone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday in which they discussed the possibility of a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians, as well as the North Korean nuclear crisis.
TEL AVIV – The Trump administration on Monday issued a flat denial of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s claim that the U.S. and Israel were in discussions regarding the annexation of West Bank settlements, prompting the Israeli leader to walk back his remarks.
TEL AVIV – President Donald Trump is not convinced that either Israel or the Palestinians are committed to peace, he said in an interview Sunday with Israeli daily Israel Hayom.
All countries should pass a law like the US’s Taylor Force Act, which bars the Palestinian Authority from making so-called “martyrs payments” to the families of terrorists, Strategic Affairs Minister Gilad Erdan told a Jerusalem anti-BDS conference of international lawyers on Monday.
The Palestinians intend to go on an offensive against Israel at the United Nations and the International Criminal Court (ICC), according to a report by Al Jazeera.
TEL AVIV – President Donald Trump’s administration is orchestrating a “coup” to get rid of the Palestinian leadership and his Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, should learn to “shut up” and refrain from criticizing Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, Secretary of the PLO Executive Committee Saeb Erekat said Saturday.
TEL AVIV – Amid worsening relations with the Palestinians, the Trump administration is now considering rejecting the UN’s definition of Palestinian “refugees” and cutting off all financial aid to the agency that caters to them, an Israeli TV report said Tuesday.
TEL AVIV – Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah movement on Tuesday accused Vice President Mike Pence of “defiling” the Western Wall by his visit to the holy site earlier that day.
TEL AVIV – Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ deputy in the ruling Fatah faction this week dismissed years of American aid amounting to several billion dollars with the declaration that the U.S. has never given anything of “substance” to the Palestinians, and added that “nothing good will come from them.”
The Palestinians rejected US President Donald Trump’s fresh threat to withhold hundreds of millions of dollars in aid on Thursday, saying peace talks are “off the table” if the American recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital isn’t reversed.
Actors Hugh Grant and Viggo Mortensen are among more than 25 celebrities and public figures expressing “horror” over President Donald Trump’s decision to cut funding to the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, an advocacy group said Thursday.
TEL AVIV – Amid fraying relations, the Trump administration is investigating an overhaul of the entire Palestinian aid budget, and not just settling itself with cuts to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, an Israeli news broadcaster reported Wednesday.
TEL AVIV – Democrat sympathies lie with the Palestinians almost as much as with Israel in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with Republican support for the Jewish state nearly three times that of the Democrats, a poll released Tuesday found.
BRUSSELS – French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Monday that France wants the European Union to start work on an agreement on closer ties with the Palestinian territories, following U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
TEL AVIV – President Donald Trump is right in contemplating cutting aid to the “biased and racist” U.N. so-called Palestinian refugee agency that seeks to destroy Israel, a Kuwaiti columnist said Wednesday.
President Donald Trump is accelerating the move of the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, with the transition now expected to occur by 2019 — several years ahead of the original schedule.
TEL AVIV – The Palestinian leadership has slammed the Trump administration over its suspension of $65 million in the first installment to the UN Palestinian refugee agency, charging that the U.S. is doing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bidding and dissolving the body gradually.
TEL AVIV – The Trump administration is preparing to cut tens of millions of dollars – over half the intended first installment – from the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, the Associated Press, citing U.S. officials, reported on Sunday.
