Israel / Middle East - Page 592

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.

The head of U.N.’s top human rights agency has reportedly been sending letters to companies that do business in Israeli settlements.

Russia and U.S.-designated state sponsor of terrorism Iran continue to provide weapons and other military aid to Taliban jihadists in Afghanistan, reiterates United States Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, repeating accusations made by the United States armed forces.

NEW YORK — Dina Habib Powell, the Trump administration’s Deputy National Security Advisor, was a featured speaker at the gala dinner of a George Soros-financed group that honored a notoriously anti-Israel Palestinian legislator.

The prime ministers of Iraq and Turkey spoke on the telephone on Wednesday to discuss the likely outcome of the Kurdistan’s referendum on independence, the results of which will be announced Friday.

Heightened security will be in effect throughout the country during Yom Kippur Friday and Saturday, with an emphasis on Jerusalem and the Old City, as tens of thousands of Jews from across the globe converge at the Western Wall.

Leila Khaled, a convicted Palestinian hijacker who has continued to advocate violence against Israelis, is reportedly slated to give two talks in Spain in the next few days despite attempts by Israeli officials to block her.

NEW YORK — The United States pressed Thursday for the International Atomic Energy Agency to carry out more nuclear inspections in Iran, warning that failure to do so would make the nuclear deal with Tehran “an empty promise.”

Retired Harvard University law professor Alan Dershowitz on Wednesday encouraged university students not to back down from difficult discussions surrounding Israel on campus, urging them to make complex, cogent cases rooted in history when faced with propagandistic attacks.

NEW YORK — U.S. Envoy to Israel David Friedman has once again stoked Palestinian Authority anger by shining the light of accuracy on key Israeli-Palestinian issues, ignoring Palestinian misinformation and declaring that so-called Israeli settlements are “a part of Israel.”

The U.S.-backed Iraqi military has reportedly announced that it plans “to coordinate military efforts” with neighboring Iran, considered by the American government to be the leading state-sponsor of terrorism.

Following Kurdistan’s overwhelming vote in favor of seceding from Iraq on Monday, Baghdad’s parliament announced a series of measures intended to prevent their independence, including deploying Iraqi troops to Kurdish Peshmerga held areas.

Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan offered to free American pastor Andrew Brunson, imprisoned for allegedly spreading both pro-Kurdish propaganda and supporting Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen despite being a Christian, in exchange for Gulen himself on Thursday.

Representatives from various ethnoreligious minority groups in Iraq – including Christians, Yazidis, and Turkmen – expressed distress towards Kurds voting “yes” to Iraqi Kurdistan’s independence this week, with some saying the referendum was “illegal” and “forced.”

A British born Imam who was caught given hate-filled sermons by an undercover police officer who attended the mosque has been jailed for six and a half years.

Two residents of the Arab Israeli town of Umm al-Fahm were charged on Thursday with planning to carry out a shooting attack on the Temple Mount compound in Jerusalem, similar to the one that took place in July.

NEW YORK – American Jewish groups have slammed Interpol for for granting ‘Palestine’ entry to the international police organization as a full member state.

NEW YORK – U.S. Jewish groups alongside their Israeli counterparts have called for a pre-Yom Kippur protest to be held Thursday outside the Qatari embassy in Washington, DC to demand that the Gulf state pressure terror group Hamas to release the remains of two IDF soldiers killed during the conflict with Israel in 2014. 

NEW YORK – The U.S. will not honor Palestinian arrest warrants issued through Interpol, a senior official in Washington said following the international police organization’s vote to include ‘Palestine’ as a full member state.

The deputy chairwoman and one of the public faces of Germany’s populist, euro-skeptic AfD party says that despite pejorative labels of “far right” her party is staunchly pro-Israel and looks to it as a role model.

Experts have prepared terror attack advice for British children, and police have said it should be taught in schools and colleges after a string of deadly attacks in the UK.

TEL AVIV — The king of Saudi Arabia issued a decree Tuesday, allowing women to get driver’s licenses and drive vehicles, while also stating that the new freedom would be given in accordance with the restriction of religious sharia law.

A man who shouted anti-Semitic abuse at Jewish people on their way to a London synagogue has been found guilty of religiously aggravated harassment and of using threatening behaviour.

Hamas appears to be changing its tunnel strategy, shifting from a focus on border-crossing attack routes to more internal defense structures, as Israel steps up work on its underground barrier surrounding the Gaza Strip, according to IDF assessments on Wednesday.

A female Ayurveda doctor was allegedly abducted and tortured for 22 days at a Hindu reeducation center last month after marrying a Christian man in Kerala, India.

Leading up to the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan is reportedly consulting with Israel for assistance with counterterrorism efforts at the global sporting event.

Under the nuclear agreement Tehran signed with world powers, which allows it to continue its missile program unabated, the Iranian military industry is developing one of its most covert projects: the RAAD anti-tank missile.

A rocket attack on an international airport in Kabul barely missed Defense Secretary James Mattis, who landed there on a surprise visit Wednesday.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, echoing the position of the United States, says the only “two options” available for the Taliban at this juncture in the 16-year-old war in Afghanistan are to continue pursuing their terror campaign and be annihilated or renounce violence and embrace peace.

Taliban jihadists control or contest 45 percent of Afghanistan as U.S. President Donald Trump begins to escalate the American military footprint in the country, reports the Long War Journal (LWJ), echoing assessments from the United States government and the terrorist group itself.

On Wednesday, the international police organization Interpol voted to admit the nonexistent “State of Palestine” despite strong Israeli objections.

TEL AVIV – Residents of Har Adar, where three people were murdered Tuesday by a Palestinian terrorist who was once employed there, are rethinking whether they should continue to employ Palestinians at the settlement. 

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced on Twitter this week that Baghdad would seek full control of all airports, land crossings, and oil revenues under the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) by Friday, threatening to seize them if Erbil does not comply with the order.

TEL AVIV – Senior Iranian officials claimed Monday’s independence referendum in Iraqi Kurdistan was a “plot” orchestrated by Israel and the United States.

JERUSALEM – Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas’ ruling Fatah movement praised the terrorist who shot and killed three Israelis on Tuesday as a martyr who was willing to die for his stolen homeland.

U.S. President Donald Trump is reportedly urging his Afghan counterpart to shut down the Taliban’s self-described “political office” in Doha, arguing that it has failed to accomplish its intended purpose of serving as a conduit for peace negotiations.