Israel / Middle East - Page 591

Tehran has reportedly deployed dozens of artillery-backed tanks and its powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) to link up with Iran-allied Shiite militias at the Iraqi Kurdistan border in response to the Kurds overwhelmingly voting in favor of independence from Iraq last Monday.

An FBI informant testified this week about his correspondence with a Massachusetts man named David Wright, who planned to behead conservative blogger Pamela Geller after she organized a Muhammad cartoon contest in Texas.

The Islamic State (ISIS) claimed responsibility for the shooting in Las Vegas, which has been confirmed as the deadliest of its kind in recent U.S. history.

A 14-year-old boy who was knifed in the head and neck outside a Shia mosque in Birmingham was the victim of a sectarian attack, his family have said.

A delegation of Palestinian Authority ministers led by Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah was set to travel from the West Bank to Gaza on Monday for reconciliation talks with the Islamic terror group Hamas, which rules the coastal enclave.

The Iraqi government cut autonomous Kurdistan’s direct air links with the outside world indefinitely on Friday, partially isolating the northern region after it voted a massive “yes” in an independence referendum.

An illegal ‘North African’ migrant was behind the knife attack in Marseilles, France, on Saturday according to reports, which has been claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group.

In a rare move, Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman approved a plan to shut off the West Bank and Gaza Strip for 11 days for the Sukkot holiday and the following Shabbat, his office said Sunday.

TEL AVIV — The king of Saudi Arabia announced a royal decree last week lifting restrictions on women that forbade them from driving or acquiring a driver’s license, before which Saudi Arabia was the only country in the world to impose such a ban on female drivers.

NEW YORK – Anti-Israel and anti-Semitic themes in textbooks used by schools run by the UN Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA have only worsened in recent years, the Algemeiner reported. 

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party is running yet another children’s summer camp named after the terrorist behind the deadliest attack in Israel’s history.  

NEW YORK – Israel’s top tennis player quit in the middle of a tennis match in order to observe Yom Kippur, potentially costing him $34,000 in prize money.

A group of Sunni Arab tribal leaders has voiced support for the non-binding independence referendum passed by northern Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region this week, denouncing Shiite-led Baghdad’s opposition.

The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in northern Iraq has reportedly refused to hand over control of its international crossings to Shite-led Baghdad, which has vowed to seize authority over the borders of its autonomous region with the help of neighboring Iran and Turkey.

NEW YORK — The global AFP news agency published an article claiming that “rights groups” on Friday “slammed” a national survey being conducted by the Hungarian government about billionaire George Soros and what Budapest describes as Soros’s plan for hundreds of thousands of migrangts per year to flood Europe.

Kurdish Members of Parliament (MPs) have responded to a sexually aggressive image published in an Iraqi newspaper in reaction to Monday’s independence referendum vote, with one female MP saying the image “amounts to a declaration of war against the Kurdistan region.”

Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum has released a special statement denying the claims of government officials in Libya that local authorities arrested a Hamas cell involved in weapons smuggling and attack plots.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The United Arab Emirates has begun collecting new “sin” taxes on tobacco products, energy drinks and soft drinks.

BEIRUT — The leader of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah has marked the Shiite religious holiday of Ashoura with a speech warning Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu against pushing the region into war.

ISTANBUL — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Saturday that Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency played a role in Iraqi Kurdistan’s independence vote, proved by the waving of Israeli flags during celebrations of the overwhelming “yes’ vote.

Hamas has accepted an Egyptian proposal for a prisoner swap with Israel and is awaiting Jerusalem’s response to the offer, the terror group’s leader in the Gaza Strip, Yahya Sinwar, said Thursday night, according to Channel 2 news.

A university in Saudi Arabia has said it will open a driving school for women, in a first for the ultra-conservative country after a ban on women driving was lifted.

CAIRO — Two international rights groups called on Egyptian authorities on Saturday to halt their crackdown on people suspected of homosexuality following the waving of the LGBT rainbow flag at a recent concert in Cairo.

Police said at least 50 people were detained Saturday during a right-wing demonstration in Sweden’s second-largest city that left one police officer and several others injured.

Two suspected members of Adolf Hitler’s mobile “Einsatzgruppen” death squads identified by the Simon Wiesenthal Center have been tracked down by German reporters but deny participating in wartime massacres.

TEL AVIV — Fatah Revolutionary Council secretary Fayez Abou Aita told Breitbart Jerusalem in an interview that his movement is preparing to return to power in the Gaza Strip amid progress in Egypt-brokered talks toward reconciliation between the movements of Fatah and the Hamas terrorist group.

TEL AVIV — The movements of Hamas and Fatah are continuing to prepare for the possibility of a reconciliation deal that would see Hamas ostensibly hand over of power in the Gaza Strip to the government of the Palestinian Authority led by Fatah, the movement of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

TEL AVIV — The Hamas movement won’t agree to any movement on the issue of relinquishing weapons currently held by Hamas during reconciliation discussions with Fatah and the Palestinian Authority, according to Hamas deputy politburo chief Mousa Abu Marzook.

The Iranian government arrested scores of Kurdish civilians in Rojhelat this week following the historic “yes” vote for Kurdish independence on Monday.

U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley blasted Russia on Thursday for trying to shield Iran from United Nations nuclear inspections. She accused Russia of completely undermining the nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

Turkish President Recep Erdogan dismissed the possibility of Kurdistan becoming an independent state on Thursday following their independence referendum this week, claiming the process will only end in “disappointment.”

The president of Iraq’s Kurdish region warned on Friday that the Kurds might be forced to retaliate if the central government persists with what his spokesman called a “very aggressive” stance toward the pro-independence referendum.

The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the world-leading security organisation has warned the spectre of terrorism will continue to haunt Europe for many years to come against an increase in radicalisation in European nations.

COPENHAGEN, Denmark — The Danish military deployed troops in Copenhagen on Friday to guard the city’s synagogue and the Israeli embassy, hours ahead of the Yom Kippur Jewish holiday.

I just returned from Europe, where I heard an eerie echo of its past.

When legislation on U.S. foreign policy, vehemently opposed by the president, comes before the U.S. Senate for approval, the chances the bill will sail through by unanimous vote are highly unlikely.