Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Iran

Partners for Peace?
Filling in the Blanks: Documenting Missing Dimensions in UN and NGO "Investigations" of the Gaza Conflict - Gerald M. Steinberg and Anne Herzberg, eds. (NGO Monitor and UN Watch)
Bad Headline, Worse Picture - Yarden Frankl (Honest Reporting)

Syria
Al Nusrah Front celebrates 9/11 attacks in new video - Thomas Joscelyn (The Long War Journal) While much of the jihadists’ propaganda these days focuses on tactical gains or, in the Islamic State’s case, various atrocities, Al Nusrah took a different approach in “The Heirs of Glory.” The production is meant to tie the jihadists’ current efforts in Syria to a longstanding effort to reclaim a past ruled by various Islamic empires.

United Kingdom

United States of America
FBI Rounding Up Islamic State Suspects - Josh Rogin and Eli Lake (Bloomberg) 
How the White House Abandoned American Hostages - Barak Barfi (Foreign Policy) I was an advisor to the families of U.S. hostages held by the Islamic State. And the Obama administration failed them, repeatedly.

Friday, June 12, 2015

Why haven't we heard more about human rights activist Bassam Eid, a Palestinian human rights activist? (See Ynet News)


Great BritainA sports story which did not interest the BBC – (BBC Watch)The BBC News website’s Sport section (along with BBC television news and BBC World Service radio) has engaged in the context-free promotion of the Palestinian push to expel Israel from FIFA. Meanwhile, the BBC has ignored the treatment of the Israeli delegation at the World Masters Judo competition in Morocco.

LibyaIslamic State 'province' advances in and around Libyan city of Sirte – Thomas Joscelyn (The Long War Journal)

Partners for Peace?Israel, the Palestinians and Jordan Cooperate to Rehabilitate the Jordan River - Laurie Balbo (Green Prophet)Pre-Schoolers with Toy Guns Parade in West Bank Kindergarten Graduation Ceremony (MEMRI-TV)Netanyahu calls on Palestinians to return to talks – Joshua Davidovich and Stuart Winer (Times of Israel)Palestinian Poll Shows Discontent with Hamas, Gaza War - Ian Deitch (AP) At the same time, 63% supported launching rockets at Israel.Hamas Leader: We Want All of Palestine (Alresalah-Gaza)

Saudi ArabiaSaudis and Israelis Meet in India - Shimon Shapira(Weekly Standard)

TurkeyAbuse Victim's Fine Exposes Turkish Women's Harsh Reality - Abigail R. Esman (IPT News)Turkey's View of Israel – Uzay Bulut (Gatestone Institute)

Friday, May 22, 2015

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)


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."
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. 
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)


Saturday, May 16, 2015

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


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." 

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

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.


Saturday, May 9, 2015


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

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)

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

UN

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.


Friday, May 1, 2015

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)