Please note that there will be irregular updates this summer because of our travel schedule.

Can AFP Say "Egyptian Blockade"? (CAMERA) Though an Agence France Presse article twice mentions the "Israeli blockade" of Gaza, under which hundreds of trucks containing all kinds of products pass every week, not once does it contain the phrase "Egyptian blockade," despite the fact that for most of the last seven months nothing at all has passed through the Gaza-Egypt border crossing.

Khamenei: U.S. Is Enemy to Both Sunnis and Shias - David Daoud (Algemeiner) The U.S. is the enemy of both Shia and Sunni Muslims, as well as the world's main sponsor of terrorism, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Saturday.
Iran Navy Fires at Singapore Ship in International Waters (The Clarion Project)

Iran: 80,000 Hizbullah Missiles Ready to Target Israel (Iran Daily)

Pope Francis Didn't Call Mahmoud Abbas "an Angel of Peace" - Stephen Kruiser (PJ Media) A BBC reporter claimed that Pope Francis said, "you are an angel of peace," while presenting a gift to PA leader Mahmoud Abbas. However, the Vatican reporter for the Italian newspaper La Stampa wrote that Francis said: "May the angel of peace destroy the evil spirit of war. I thought of you: may you be an angel of peace."

Obama: Mideast Peace Deal Not Possible at This Point; Palestinians Cannot Expect to Have a State If They Don't Recognize Israel - Nadia Bilbassy-Charters (Al-Arabiya)

How the IDF Watches a Thousand Boats and Knows Which Belong to Hizbullah - Amir Buhbut (Walla-Hebrew)

Israel Intercepts 40 Diving Suits En Route to Gaza - Yaakov Lappin (Jerusalem Post)  Security sources assessed that the package was part of Hamas' attempts to build up its offensive naval strike force. 

Palestinian Forces Fighting Alongside the Syrian Regime(MEMRI)

The Lessons of the Syrian Chemical Weapons Discovery - Brig.-Gen. (res.) Yossi Kuperwasser (Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs)

Attacks on Syrians in Turkey increasing – Semih Idiz (Al-Monitor)

Who Can Attack Turkish Ships? Burak Bekdil (Gatestone Institute)

Washington Post Falls for Breaking the Silence 'Report' (CAMERA)

Publication of Israeli Soldiers' Accounts Clouded by Political Agenda - Gerald Steinberg (Sydney Morning Herald-Australia)

Canada Threatens Hate Crime Charges Against Those Who Boycott Israel - Neil Macdonald (CBC News-Canada)

China Seeking Military Base in Djibouti, East Africa(AFP) China is negotiating a military base in the strategic port of Djibouti, its president, Ismail Omar Guelleh, told AFP, raising the prospect of U.S. and Chinese bases side-by-side in the tiny Horn of Africa nation.

Gen. Dempsey: Beyond Nuclear Issue, U.S. Has Five Other Issues with Iran (U.S. Department of Defense) "I'm certainly supportive of the efforts to try to resolve that one (nuclear) diplomatically, but we'll have other issues with Iran, whether it's surrogates and proxies, weapons trafficking, ballistic missile development, cyber activity, and on occasion, their effort to threaten freedom of navigation." 

The Arab States Have Four Minutes to Act If Iran Fires a Missile - Marcus Weisgerber (Defense One)

Iraq Counts on Magic Wands to Stop ISIS - Jacob Siegel (Daily Beast)

Top Member of U.S. Negotiating Team: Most West Bank Housing Tenders Announced During Peace Talks Were on Land Abbas Agreed Would Remain Israeli - Herb Keinon (Jerusalem Post)

Israel Says Unauthorized Boats Will Be Denied Entry as Gaza Flotillas Begin Again - Herb Keinon (Jerusalem Post)

PA honors 3 terrorists who lynched two Israeli reservists - Itamar Marcus (PMW)

Disgusting Exploitation of Disabled Palestinian Child – Yarden Frankl (Honest Reporting) Mohammed Omer, a Palestinian journalist, turns the story of Mohammed al-Farra upside down.

Hamas Lets Shiite Group Operate in Gaza - Avi Issacharoff (Times of Israel) The Shiite Islamist movement A-Sabrin has began operating in Gaza with full Iranian sponsorship.

What You Won’t Hear about “Nakba Day” (CAMERA)

Power Struggle Erupts after Islamic State Leader Seriously Wounded - Jamie Dettmer (Daily Beast) 

Iran

Iran's Anti-U.S. Conspiracies - Michael Crowley (Politico) A top Iranian general, Ahmad Reza Pourdastan, the commander of Iran's ground forces, recently claimed that the U.S. staged the 9/11 attacks as an excuse to invade the Muslim world.

Iraq

Islamic State 'executes 300 Yazidi hostages in Iraq' – AFP (The Telegraph)

Morocco

Morocco battles Islamic State cells – Imad Stitou (Almonitor)

Partners for Peace?

Hamas Destroys Jihadist Gaza Mosque - Khaled Abu Toameh (Jerusalem Post)
The Islamic State and Hamas Compete for Gaza - Siobhan L'Grady (Foreign Policy)

With new hawkish coalition, what hope for the peace process? - Raphael Ahren (Times of Israel)

Saudi Arabia

The Saudi Connection: Wahhabism and Global Jihad - Carol E. B. Choksy and Jamsheed K. Choksy (World Affairs) Saudi Arabia complains that the US is no longer the reliable ally who agreed in 1945 to guarantee the monarchy’s security. But as the cradle of Islamist terror, it has become a duplicitous friend as well. It should no longer be allowed to use its oil wealth to take its terror connections off the table.

Syria

Syria's Transformation into an Iranian Base - N. Mozes (MEMRI)

UN

UNRWA takes no responsibility for rocket launchers in shelters – Shlomi Elder (Almonitor)

United States

With Malice Toward Nun – Nina Shea (Hudson Institute) The State Department officials made the determination that the Catholic nun could be falsely asserting that she intends to visit Washington when secretly she could be intending to stay. That would constitute illegal immigration, and that, of course, is strictly forbidden. Once here, she could also be at risk for claiming political asylum, and the U.S. seems determined to deny ISIS’s Christian victims that status. 

U.S. Lets American Pastor Saeed Abedini Rot in Iran's Prison – Uzay Bulut (Gatestone Institute) Shamefully, the U.S. government has said that the four Americans being held by Iran are not even part of the current negotiations with Iran.

Afghanistan
Afghanistan's Precarious Future – Thomas Storch (World Affairs Journal)


Africa
Terrorism in Africa: The Imminent Threat to the United States – Thomas Joscelyn (The Long War Journal)


Canada
Foreign funds promoting ‘extreme Islamic jihadist’ views in Canada, national security advisor says – Stewart Bell (National Post)


Iran
Britain Tells UN Monitors of Active Iran Nuclear Procurement - Louis Charbonneau (Reuters)
Iran Must Pay a Price for Detaining Washington PostReporter (Washington Post)


Partners for Peace?
Hamas leader reveals indirect 'chats' with Israel (Ma'an News)
World Turns a Blind Eye to Palestinians If Israel Is Not Involved - Khaled Abu Toameh (Gatestone Institute)


Syria
Hezbollah's Top Secret Casualties – Rabih Haddad (Now Lebanon)
Islamic State Has Murdered over 2,000 in Syria since June(Reuters)


United Kingdom
Lancet Medical Journal under Attack for "Extremist Hate Propaganda" over Coverage of Israeli-Palestinian Conflict - Jeremy Laurance (Independent-UK)


United States
Anti-Israel activists attempt to hijack Baltimore riots – William A Jacobson (Legal Insurrection/Honest Reporting) While Legal Insurrection is a conservative blog, I believe this post as I saw the same thing happen years back at the anti-Iraq war marches.
New York Times Headline Eliminates Palestinian Violence (CAMERA)

The Terror Strategist: Secret Files Reveal the Structure of Islamic State - Christoph Reuter (Dir Spiegel) When the architect of the Islamic State died, he left something behind that he had intended to keep strictly confidential: the blueprint for this state.

Egypt
Large-scale Egyptian army massed for operation to capture eastern Libya from ISIS – Debka File

Iran
Map: Iran's Nuclear Installations 2015 - Olli Heinonen and Simon Henderson (Washington Institute for Near East Policy)
Executions Surge in Iran after Nuclear Talks, Iran off U.S. Terror List – Shadi Paveh (Gatestone Institute)

Nepal
Human Rights Watch’s Disaster Effort – Yarden Frankl (Honest Reporting)

PA/Hamas/etc.
Did you know Hamas is holding the bodies of 2 Israeli soldiers to use as bargaining chips? - The link will take you to a story in The Times of Israel.
14 Palestinian terrorists who murdered over 160 people honored this month - Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik (PMW)
Hamas's Plan: A Hamas State of Palestine in Gaza (For Now) - Khaled Abu Toameh (Gatestone Institute)

PA arrests man for saying Yasser Arafat was not a Martyr - Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik (PMW)

Russia

Russian Troops Kill Leader of Islamic Caucasus Emirate - Bill Roggio and Thomas Joscelyn (Long War Journal)

Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia Foils ISIS Bomb Plot Hatched in Syria - (AFP-Daily Star-Lebanon)
U.S.-Saudi Differences over Iran Role in Yemen - Tony Badran (NOW-Lebanon)

Iranian Naval Vessels Sail near Yemen as Proxy War Intensifies - Simeon Kerr (Financial Times-UK)

The Iran Agreement Is about More than Nukes - Michael Weiss (NOW-Lebanon) A decade's worth of diplomacy and dirty warfare with the world's only superpower has seen Iranian hegemony metastasize exactly where it was meant to be isolated or diminished. Any permanent deal will only certify and internationalize America's acquiescence to that hegemony since the attendant risks of trying to counter Iranian influence will mean threatening the compact, much as the chemical disarmament program for Syria gave Assad a year's worth of impunity by making him a necessary partner in dismantling his own nerve gas stockpiles.

Senior BBC Correspondent Misleads Audiences on Iran’s Terror Connections (CAMERA) In an article on the BBC News website’s Middle East page, correspondent Jonathan Marcus mentioned Iran’s “alleged support for terrorism”. The word ‘alleged’ (meaning said, without proof, to have taken place) is completely superfluous. Iran’s record of material, financial and ideological support for internationally recognized terrorist organizations Hizballah, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas is well documented.

Khamenei's Nonexistent FatwaBanning Nuclear Weapons  (MEMRI)

Iran "Is Intensifying Efforts to Support Hamas in Gaza" - Con Coughlin (Sunday Telegraph-UK)

Mother of 4 terrorist murderers again honored as role model for Palestinian women by top PA officials - Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik (PMW)

Qatar Lends Palestinians $100 Million to Pay Salaries (Reuters)

Widespread violence against Palestinian women in Gaza - Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik (PMW)

Afghanistan
17 Killed, 37 Injured As Suicide Bomber Attacks Protesters In Khost (Tolo News)

Egypt
22 Dead in Attacks on Egyptian Army Checkpoints in Sinai(Al-Masry Al-Youm-Egypt)

Iran
Iran Accuses U.S. of Lying about New Nuke Agreement – Adam Kredo (Free Beacon)
Iran Militia Chief: Destroying Israel Is "Non-negotiable" - Lazar Berman (Times of Israel)
5,000 Yemini Shias Have Been Brought to Iran for Indoctrination - Dore Gold (Facebook)
Press Aide to Iranian President Defects - Ahmed Vahdat and Richard Spencer (Telegraph-UK)
Iran Is Placing Guided Warheads on Hizbullah Rockets - Yaakov Lappin (Jerusalem Post)
Trusting the Ayatollahs - Raymond Ibrahim (American Thinker)

Jordan
Jordan shuts border crossing with Syria after fighting - Suleiman Al-Khalidi (Reuters) Syrian rebel groups seize control over Syria-Jordan border

Lebanon
Security Firm Says New Spy Software in Ten Countries Came from Lebanon - Joseph Menn (Reuters)
Israel Prepares for Enhanced Rocket Threat from Hizbullah- Yaakov Lappin (Jerusalem Post)
The Horror of Syrian Refugees Selling Body Parts – Bill Kotsasos (The Daily Beast)

Partners for Peace?
Abbas Wants Arabs to Bomb Gaza - Khaled Abu Toameh (Gatestone Institute) Mahmoud Habbash, a senior advisor to PA President Mahmoud Abbas, has called on Arab countries to launch a military strike against Gaza, similar to the Saudi-led campaign against Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen.

USA
Kelsey Grammer Inaccurate About King Herod (CAMERA)
Two Queens Women Considered Bombing NYPD Funeral, Prosecutors Say - Janon Fisher, Aidan Gardiner and Gwynne Hogan (DNA Info)...an al-Qaida-inspired terrorism plot to kill people with homemade explosives