Israel / Middle East

The administration of outgoing President Joe Biden stopped offering on Friday a reward for information leading to the capture of Ahmed al-Sharaa (formerly known as Abu Mohammed al-Jolani), the de facto leader of Syria.

The Pentagon on Thursday admitted that there are actually 2,000 American troops in Syria, not the 900 it previously said were in the country.

A group of U.S. diplomatic officials met on Friday with the rebels who toppled Bashar Assad, awkwardly seeking to open channels with an insurgency whose leaders are designated terrorists. 

Bar owners in Syria fear that Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) seizing power will lead to a nationwide ban on the consumption of alcohol.

Itamar ben Hemo, the CEO of an Israeli tech startup called Rivery, survived being shot in the chest while in combat in Gaza earlier this year and signed a $100 million deal with data management company Boomi in the U.S. this week.

Incoming U.S. ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee had a message for Israel on Thursday evening: “[Y]ou will never be alone again in your fight for freedom and to preserve the country and the land and the heritage that God gave you.”

On Thursday’s broadcast of “CNN This Morning,” CNN Political Commentator and former Biden White House Communications Director Kate Bedingfield reacted to reporting in The Wall Street Journal about “How the White House Functioned With a Diminished Biden in Charge” that included reporting

Key provisions from Iowa Republican Senator Joni Ernst to strengthen the Abraham Accords nations against Iranian aggression have been included in the 2025 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), reinforcing regional alliances and advanced security capabilities, while building on President Trump’s historic framework to confront shared threats and achieve regional peace.

Russian strongman Vladimir Putin insisted on Thursday that Russia achieved its strategic goals with its military presence in Syria even with the collapsed of the regime of ally Bashar Assad – who has since fled to Moscow, where Putin promised to meet with him soon.

Israel dismissed a claim Thursday by Human Rights Watch that it is denying water to the Gaza Strip and thereby committing genocide.

A synagogue in Montreal, Canada, was set ablaze by a crude firebomb thrown through a window overnight Tuesday into Wednesday, the latest attack on a Jewish house of worship on Prime minister Justin Trudeau’s watch.

China’s envoy to the United Nations declared on Tuesday that Beijing is seeking to “play a constructive role” in the future of Syria following the fall of Chinese ally Bashar Assad.

Iran is in the midst of a fuel shortage and an electricity crisis, causing essential utilities to be shut down in the middle of a cold winter. The regime has failed to provide for its own people but has spent billions of dollars on terror abroad.

Western powers, including the United States, are tentatively opening lines of communication to the new rulers of Syria — an alliance of Islamists led by an al-Qaeda splinter group whose boss is, inconveniently, a designated terrorist with a $10 million U.S. bounty on his head.

“Our rifles will be pointed at the U.S. government and the Zionist entity,” declared the speaker at a recent pro-Palestinian rally in New York, as he described American “imperialists” as the “number one terrorists,” and expressed solidarity with Hezbollah, a U.S.-designated terrorist organization, Iran, and other members of the “Axis of Resistance.”

Israeli foreign minister Gideon Sa’ar called Ireland’s president, Michael D. Higgins, an “antisemitic liar” on Tuesday after the latter falsely claimed that Israel is seeking to put settlements in Egypt, from which it withdrew in 1979.

President-elect Donald Trump described the collapse of the Bashar Assad regime as the culmination of years of interference by Turkey.

CNN is now admitting it got hoaxed by the star of its acclaimed and now disgraced and debunked “Syrian Prisoner” story.

A group of families of Israeli hostages said Tuesday at a press conference in Tel Aviv, Israel, that their government should strive to achieve an agreement in which all 100 captives remaining in Gaza are freed, not just a few.

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a Kurdish-led militia allied with America, confirmed on Monday that a short-lived truce with Islamist Turkish proxies in the country had collapsed due to Turkey’s intransigence.

CNN confirmed on Monday that it was duped by Syrian Air Force intelligence officer Salama Mohammad Salama, who posed as a hapless civilian prisoner named “Adel Ghurbal” so CNN could free him on-camera.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu entered Syrian territory on Tuesday, meeting with troops from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) who have occupied the former Syrian army post on Mount Hermon, the highest regional peak.

Tucker Carlson published his third interview this year on X with a strident anti-Israel guest — this time the left-wing economist Jeffrey Sachs, who described the fall of the Assad regime in Syria as a plot by Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu.

The new rulers of Syria are reportedly attempting to capture members of former dictator Bashar Assad’s “Shabiha” repressive force, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported on Sunday.

Members of Syria’s Alawite community — a small but formerly influential Shiite sect whose members included dictator Bashar Assad — are fearful of persecution at the hands of the Sunni Muslim extremist groups that deposed Assad in a swift attack on Damascus last week.

A statement purportedly from former Syrian dictator Bashar Assad appeared on social media on Monday.

Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya claimed on Sunday that 7,621 Syrian refugees “returned voluntarily” from Turkey between December 9-13.

Villages in southern Lebanon that were taken over by Hezbollah in recent years and used to stockpile weapons and fire projectiles at Israeli communities were flattened in the recent war that ended with a ceasefire last month.

Israel is reportedly preparing massive retaliation against the Houthis in Yemen, Iran’s last major terrorist proxy army, after the rebel group fired another ballistic missile Monday that triggered air raid sirens in central Israel.

CNN’s biggest scoop in years, its “Syrian Prisoner” video, looks like one more heaping helping of this disgraced outlet’s fake news.

CNN’s viral video sensation has turned into an embarrassment as a rescued “Syrian prisoner” is reportedly an intelligence agent from Assad’s regime.

Israel disputed allegations Monday by Cindy McCain, the widow of the late Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and the director of the United Nations’ World Food Program (WFP), claiming only two of its aid trucks entered Gaza in November.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was given special leave Monday to delay his testimony Tuesday in his trial because of special circumstances — leading to speculation about a strike on Iran, or a hostage deal with Hamas.

An Al Jazeera cameraman was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Nuseirat, in central Gaza, on Sunday — but Israel says that he was also an Islamic Jihad terrorist.