Eye On The Middle East

Jordan and Syria 2

In another sign of the close ties that are known to exist between Jordanian King Abdullah and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a French newspaper says it has learned of a secret agreement between Israel and Jordan concerning the war raging in Syria. The newspaper, Le Figaro, reports that armed Israeli Air Force pilot-less drone aircraft have been flying almost nightly over Syrian skies since at least January of this year. The drones were said to have been the method of attack when...

Open Skies 2

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been a longtime advocate for liberalizing Israels economy to make it more competitive in the world market. When he served as Finance Minister in Ariel Sharons government beginning in 2003, he enacted many economic reforms that turned Israel into a more capitalistic country. Before then, many government economic policies reflected the socialism that prevailed in Israel until the dominant Labor party was voted out of office in 1977. The powerful...

Lapid on Timess List

Until Israeli elections were held in late January, most people around the world had probably not heard of an Israeli politician named Yair Lapid. If you are still one of them, he is the leader of the second largest political party in the Israeli parliament. His new party, called Yesh Atid in Hebrew, meaning "There is a Future," did much better than expected in the national vote. The Tel Aviv-born 49-year-old politician has been well known in Israel for many years. Trained as a journalist, he...

Egypt and Israel

Israeli leaders did not hide their concern when the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood movement triumphed in parliamentary elections held in the wake of former President Hosni Mubaraks forced departure from power. Concerns only mounted when Muslim Brotherhood member Muhammad Morsi was subsequently elected to fill the presidential post in June of last year. The movement is the parent organization to the radical Palestinian Hamas movement, which has vowed to work with Iran and other countries to...

Hagel Visits Israel

Before American Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel visited Israel last month, many pundits were wondering how well he would be received by Israeli government leaders. That was due to the Congressional confirmation fight that surrounded his nomination to the Defense post. During those hearings, Hagel was questioned by senators over several anti-Israel statements he had made while serving as a senator from Nebraska. However after the new Defense Secretary arrived in Tel Aviv, it became clear that...

05-02-13

04-30-13

A US Corps in Israel

Canada and Israel

In past decades, diplomatic relations between Israel and Canada were not always warm. Under the leadership of the late Liberal party Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau in the nineteen seventies and eighties, Israeli leaders often found themselves under strong criticism from officials in Ottawa. However current Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper is considered to be one of Israels strongest political friends on earth. Some media reports say Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu regards...

Water War

Water rights have long been a contentious issue between Israelis and Palestinians. Israeli officials charge that Palestinian municipal authorities and farmers dig unapproved and unsupervised wells all the time, causing potential ecological damage to the underground fresh water aquifer that lies beneath the hills of Judea and Samaria. For their part, Palestinian leaders maintain Israel uses up too much of the underground water and often does not respond to formal requests for more supervised...

Hamas Fights Assad

Until internal warfare broke out in Syria two years ago, the radical Palestinian Hamas group was headquartered in Damascus. Overall Hamas leader Khaled Maashal had his office in the Syrian capital city, and he was known to have a good working relationship with Syrian dictator Bashar Assad. However Hamaswhose name comes from the Arabic acronym for its full title, the Islamic Resistance Movementis a Sunni Muslim group. Most of the rebel fighters who are battling to topple the Assad regime are...

Syrian Troops Leave Golan Heights

The besieged Syrian regime headed by Bashar Assad has been pulling thousands of its best soldiers from the Golan Heights, not far from Israels northeast border. According to reports in the British Guardian newspaper, the major redeployment began several months ago. The paper said the withdrawals are the most significant Syrian army moves in the area since Israeli forces entered nearby southern Lebanon in 1982 to halt PLO shelling from the area aimed at northern Israel. The newspaper quoted...

Miss Israel

When the annual Miss Universe pageant is held later this year, the Israeli public will be watching very closely to see if their countrys entry wins any prizes. Interest is higher than usual due to the fact that the Israeli entrance is the first black African Jewish young woman to have ever won the Miss Israel title. The winner in the contest held earlier this year was Yityish Aynaw, a 21 year old student who served in the Israeli army. She was born and raised in Ethiopia before moving with...

Cyprus Convicts Hizbullah Terrorist

Israeli government officials expressed satisfaction over a recent decision by a court on the Mediterranean island country of Cyprus to jail a man for four years who was convicted of plotting to kill Israeli tourists. The Arab man, Hossam Yaacoub, who holds due Lebanese Swedish citizenship, admitted to charges of belonging to the Hizbullah terrorist group. Heavily backed by Iran, the radical Shiite Muslim Lebanese group carried out a terrorist bus bombing last summer in Bulgaria that left six...

Obama More Popular in Israel

President Barrack Obamas state visit to Israel in March was widely dubbed a charm offensive in the Israeli media. Pundits said the American leader was obviously striving quite hard to win over an Israeli public that opinion surveys had consistently found was generally skeptical of his professions of undying support for their small country. In the wake of the presidential visit, new polls show that Obama succeeded in boosting his image with Israels majority Jewish population. One survey,...

Prisoner X

Many Israelis were shocked to learn last month that an Israeli man who reportedly hanged himself in his prison cell was in fact a secret agent working for the Israeli Mossad intelligence agency. The deceased man, who was only identified as Prisoner X at the time of his death, was later named as Ben Zygier, who hailed from Melbourne Australia. That revelation made headlines in his native country, where he was known for his public activity in support of the large local Jewish community before...

Chemical Weapons in Syria

While visiting Israel last month, President Obama publicly warned the embattled Syrian Assad regime to refrain from using deadly chemical weapons against its own people. He did so when asked at a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to comment on reports that such weapons have already been deployed on several occasions. The President said, I have made clear that the use of chemical weapons is a game changer, but I wont make an announcement today about next...

Dont Visit the Temple Mount

Control over Jerusalems ancient Temple Mount has always been at the heart of the long and bitter Arab-Israeli conflict. The sacred site has served as Judaisms holiest spot on earth ever since King Solomon built the first Jewish Temple there some 3,000 years ago. Arab Muslim forces captured the Mount around 1,500 years ago, violently wresting it from Byzantine Christian control. Today it is the frequent site of Palestinian Muslim clashes with Israeli security forces, who have policed the Old...

Tense Border With Syria

One of the many pressing issues that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu discussed with Barrack Obama during the Presidents state visit last week was the ongoing war in neighboring Syria. Israeli officials are especially worried over the growing prospect that the Syrian regimes massive chemical weapons stockpile may be transferred to President Bashar Assads Shiite Lebanese Hizbullah ally. In late January, Israeli warplanes bombed a Syrian convoy carrying Russian-made surface to air...

New Government in Israel

Now that President Barrack Obama has left the region, the Israeli media and public are concentrating on the composition of their new government, which was only sworn into office just two days before the American leader arrived in the country for his first official state visit. Most political pundits are saying that the big winner in the prolonged negotiations to establish the coalition government, comprised of four parties, is the head of the third largest party, Naftali Bennett. The former...

Game Show Speech?

President Barrack Obama said one of the main reasons he wanted to visit Israel this week was to have a chance to speak directly to the Israeli people. Therefore he turned down an invitation to deliver todays speech before the Israeli parliament, the Knesset. Instead, the Presidents advance men requested that the largest convention center in Jerusalem, called in Hebrew Binyanei Ha Uma, or The Buildings of the Nation, be made available for Obamas televised speech. The centers largest pubic...

Obamas Schedule in Israel

President Barrack Obama, Secretary of State John Kerry, and hundreds of American journalists are scheduled to arrive tomorrow here in Israel for Obamas three-day state visit. Its the first time the US leader has visited the Jewish State after taking office in early 2009, although he has been in the region several times during his first term in office, visiting Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Turkey. The President is due to meet with senior Israeli officials after touching down at Ben Gurion...

Traveling Torch

As Adolph Hitler was rising to power in Germany in the early 1930s, Jewish athletes from around the world were gathering for the first Maccabiah Games, which is a scaled down Jewish version of the quadrennial Summer Olympics. However the games, always held in the Holy Land, were suspended in 1938 as anti-Jewish violence escalated in Nazi Germany. They were not resumed again until 1950. Later in that same decade, funds were raised from Jewish donors to construct a large stadium to hold the...

Grounded F-35S

Israeli government and military leaders decided at the end of the lastdecade to purchase 20 F-35 stealth warplanes produced in the United Statesby Lockheed Martin, which is based in Bethesda Maryland not far fromWashington DC. The fighter jets powerful engines are being built by theConnecticut-based Pratt Whitney corporation. When they signed theagreement to purchase the advanced warplanes for 2.75 billion dollars,Israeli officials said the F-35s would ensure Israels qualitative edge...

Syria Will Hit Back at Israel

Last month, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who is retiring from politics after a new government takes office, indirectly confirmed Arab media reports that Israeli Air Force jets had bombed a Syrian arms convoy heading into nearby Lebanon. The news reports said the convoy was carrying Russian-made Syrian anti-aircraft rockets for delivery to Lebanese Shiite Hizbullah militia forces, which are allied with the embattled Assad regime. Barak and other Israeli leaders had earlier warned the...

PA Blames Israel For Unrest

American government officials say they are concerned by the flare up of violent unrest in many portions of the West Bank and Jerusalem that began late last month. Media reports say they are especially worried that the clashes between Palestinian protestors and Israeli security personnel might have a negative effect on the upcoming visit of President Barrack Obama to the country. The violence began when hundreds of Palestinians gathered outside an Israeli prison near the Arab city of Ramallah...

Iran Steps Up Persecution

In the Shiite Muslim country of Iran, its against the law for a Christian to share the gospel with any member of the Islamic faith. This same ban can also be found in many Sunni Muslim Arab countries, like Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states. Iranian officials have also outlawed all churches in the country, meaning Christians must meet in secret if they gather together at all. Last January, a 32-year-old pastor, Saeed Abedini, was convicted of practicing his faith in the open and sentenced to...

New Gulf Island

Despite being among the wealthiest countries on earth, Saudi Arabia and other Arab gulf oil states were hit by the worldwide recession that began in the latter half of the last decade. Building plans for elaborate new hotels, restaurants and entertainment centers were shelved in Dubai, Qatar and other small gulf states. However with the economy finally stabilizing in the area, previously frozen construction plans are being put into action. Among the plans is one in Dubai that will include...

No Elections Now

Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas announced late last year that he would hold elections for a new parliament this spring. It was to have been the first national Palestinian vote since the radical Islamic Hamas movement triumphed in the last election held in early 2006. However Hamas leaders said they would not allow the election to take place in the Gaza Strip, which the group seized control over during a violent one-day battle with PA security forces in 2007. Do to this stand, the...

Battling For Obama

Preparations are continuing in Israel for the official state visit of American President Barrack Obama, which is scheduled for late March. The second term President will be visiting the Jewish State for the first time since he entered office in two thousand eight. Israeli officials were heartened by several statements President Obama made about the region during his state of the union speech, delivered in Washington DC earlier this month. He said his visit is partly designed to show that the...

Terror In Bulgaria

Last July, five young Israeli tourists who were visiting the southeastern European country of Bulgaria were killed when a powerful bomb went off in the tour bus that they were boarding. A local Bulgarian bus driver was also killed in the explosion. Soon after the deadly terrorist attack took place, Israeli security investigators said that they had determined that the attackers were Lebanese Muslims who were sent out by the Shiite Lebanese Hizbullah movement. Hizbullah terrorists had earlier...

Border Tensions

Tension remains high along Israels northern borders with Syria and Lebanon after Israeli warplanes bombed a convoy carrying Syrian rockets to the Shiite Lebanese Hizbullah militia earlier this month. Israeli Air Force jets also struck a Syrian chemical weapons research facility on the outskirts of Damascus, reportedly killing a number of Iranian and Syrian military personnel in the process. Israeli, American French and British leaders had all warned the besieged Syrian Assad regime not to...

Fischer Resigns

As the world economy has struggled to stay afloat since the financial crisis began in the United States with the housing market bust nearly seven years ago, Israels economy has flourished. Housing prices have actually risen during the period, due mainly to a lack of buildable land in the small country. Unemployment has remained relatively low in Israel, especially as compared with Europe and the United States. Most Israeli economists attribute much of the countrys success to just one man,...

Iran and Israel

Last month, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert came out strongly against any Israeli military strike upon Irans nuclear program facilities, where uranium is being enriched in around 1,200 centrifuges. Now a former chief of the Israeli armys military intelligence branch has joined Olmert in calling upon Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to show restraint, despite the fact that Irans Shiite Muslim leaders regularly vow to destroy the worlds only Jewish state. Speaking at a security...

Refugee Aid Pledged

As the violent anti-regime revolt continues in Syria leaving an estimated 60,000 people dead so far Syrian civilians continue to pour out of their war-torn country in droves. United Nation sources estimate that over 700,000 Syrians have now fled the fighting tearing apart their country. They have mostly gone to live in refugee camps set up with UN assistance in Lebanon, Turkey, Jordan and Iraq. The largest block of refugees has entered neighboring Lebanon, which has a notoriously porous...

Birth Control In Israel

A sharp controversy has erupted in Israel concerning a well know birth control drug that is being used by many black African Ethiopian immigrants living in the Jewish State. The prescription drug in question is known as Depo-Provera. It is taken by injection. Now some are alleging that Israeli health authorities have not done enough to explain to the Ethiopian immigrant community what the potential negative side effects could be from using the powerful birth control drug, including possible...

Weapons Seized Near Yemen

Israeli officials are keeping a close eye on fighting involving Al Qaida-linked terrorist forces in several parts of the region. Supported by the United States, French military forces are leading the battle against the rebels in the West African country of Mali. Other NATO members are also involved. Israeli leaders expressed relief when a large arms shipment was recently intercepted by Yemens coast guard, aided by American naval vessels. It was thought that some of the weapons were probably...

King Herod On View

King Herod ruled the Holy Land in the decades right before Jesus was born in Bethlehem over 2,000 ago. Although he is widely known as "King Herod the Great," historians note that he was actually not great at all is a personal sense. Instead, Herod ordered the murder of many members of his own royal family, and is widely described as a madman, especially in his latter years. Some historians believe he probably suffered from mental illness related to venereal disease. Whatever the case, the...

Ron Nachman

Israeli settlement leaders and politicians are mourning the death of Ron Nachman, who served as mayor of what has become one of the largest Jewish communities in disputed territory north of Jerusalem, known in the Bible as Samaria. Nachman died of cancer earlier this month at the age of 70. When he was a young man of 35, Nachman moved to a small hilltop outpost that was named Ariel, which is also another name for Jerusalem found in the Bible, meaning in the Hebrew language "Lion of God." At...

Senators In Egypt

Israeli officials have expressed concerns over anti-Jewish comments made by Muhammad Morsi, who became president of Egypt following national elections held in the regions largest Arab country last year. In remarks made before members of his Muslim Brotherhood movement in 2010, Morsi harshly denounced Israeli government policies concerning the Palestinians. After doing so, he quoted several portions of the Islamic Hadith, an ancient Muslim holy book that details many of Islams oral traditions...

Jewish Home Building

Many world leaders continue to speak out against the Israeli governments declared plans to build new Jewish homes in disputed territory between the city of Jerusalem and its largest Jewish suburb, Maale Adumim. Among them is UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, who recently repeated his earlier demand that Israel shelve the building plans, maintaining that they pose a huge obstacle to peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians. He released a statement saying that, "In this particularly...

Iranian Spies

Israeli leaders have been among many world officials that have urged embattled Syrian dictator Bashar Assad to leave office and end the blood-soaked civil war that has been raging in his country for nearly two years now. However Israeli analysts note that any new government formed by rebel Sunni Muslim forces, which are fighting hard to topple Assad, may not be any better for Israel that the current regime has been towards the Jewish State. However the analysts say that one silver lining for...

New Finds Near Jerusalem

The Israel Antiquities Authority announced earlier this month that archaeolgistshad discovered some ancient buildings while digging in the Judean hills west of Jerusalem. The Authority said the discovery, near the modern Jerusalem suburb of Motza on the main highway to Tel Aviv, sheds important light on the era before the Jewish kings described in the Bible ruled the land. The three Israeli directors of the excavation put out a statement saying that "The ritual building at Tel Motza is an...

Campaign Heating Up In Israel

With less than two weeks before Israeli voters go to the polls to elect a new Knesset on January 22nd, the political campaigns are heating up in the country. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is widely expected to remain in his position after the national ballot, released a campaign video earlier this month that has been repeatedly broadcast in the country. All eligible Israeli political parties are given free television time every day in the run up to the election to bring their...

Chuck Hagel

There were mixed reactions in Israel when news came earlier this month that President Barack Obama was nominating former Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel as Americas next Defense Secretary. Israeli media outlets quickly published extracts of several controversial comments made by the Republican politician when he was still serving in the Senate between the years 1997 and 2009. One political pundit called Hagel, "arguably the most hostile anti-Israel US senator ever to serve in the American...

Arabs Concerned Over Irans Nuclear Program

The small Arab gulf state of Kuwait was liberated from Saddam Husseins occupation military forces by the United States and its allies twenty two years ago this winter. Ever since then, the oil rich country has been closely allied to the US. Like many of its Arab neighbors, Kuwaiti officials have been expressing increasing concern over the nearby Shiite Muslim Iranian regimes rogue nuclear program. Speaking at a recent meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council, which links Kuwait and Saudi...

Another Defection In Syria

Middle East experts are increasingly predicting the overthrow of the Syrian Assad regime sometime later this year. They said another important indication that the Arab regimes grip on power is crumbling was the defection late last month of the head of the countrys military police force, Major General Abdul Aziz Jassem al-Shallal. His dramatic decision was announced in a video that he made for airing on the Al Arabiya satellite news network. After he identified himself by name, the high...

Poverty In Israel

An Israeli group has announced that more than 900,000 children in the Jewish State live below the governments official poverty level. This translates into more than a third of the total number of children residing in Israel. The report, by the Council for the Welfare of the Child, found that two-thirds of all Arab children in Israel were living in poverty; almost triple the percentage of poor Jewish children. Officials say that over the past three decades, the number of poor children in...

Malaysia

Malaysia is a country of nearly thirty million people, located in Southeast Asia near the worlds largest Muslim nation, Indonesia. Like its island neighbor, Malaysias citizens are mostly Muslims, although a significant Christian community of nearly three million souls also exists in the country. Several years ago, a number of those Christians expressed their desire to travel to Israel for the annual Feast of Tabernacles celebration in Jerusalem, which brings thousands of pilgrims to the holy...

New Years Eve

Officially, the New Year holiday is not observed this evening in Israel, unlike in many countries around the world. The Jewish New Year is marked on Rosh HaShana, whose annual rotating date usually falls in September. However with the immigration to Israel of over one million Jews and their relatives from the former Soviet Union over the past two decades, a new holiday has emerged in the Holy Land. In Russia, Christmas in only observed on January 7th, meaning the Western New Year holiday has...

PA Looks To UN Court

As Israeli officials feared, the Palestinian Authority government is threatening to bring criminal charges against them at the United Nations International Court of Justice located in Holland. The charges would be leveled against various Israeli leaders accused by the Palestinians of committing war crimes. Referring to an early December Israeli government announcement that around three thousand apartments and homes will be constructed in several contested Jewish communities northeast of...

Christians Face Pressure In Egypt

Human rights groups report that millions of Christians living all over the Middle East face growing persecution from Muslim fundamentalists who are on the ascendancy in Egypt and several other Arab countries with substantial minority Christian populations. A court in the Egyptian capital city, Cairo, recently convicted a young Coptic Christian blogger who posted internet addresses on his Facebook page linked to anti-Islamic web sites. The court sentenced Alber Saber to three years in prison...

Natural Gas In Israel

Several years ago, Israeli government officials announced that a huge underwater natural gas field dubbed Leviathan had been discovered off of the northern coast of Israels third largest city, Haifa. The giant field is projected to cover all of the small countrys domestic natural gas needs for several decades to come. Earlier this month, a large Australian energy company called Woodside Petroleum revealed that it was purchasing a 30% stake in the natural gas field, which is also expected to...

Kadima To Disappear?

With national elections in Israel now just over one month away, the political scene continues to buzz with frenetic activity. Speculation had been rife that former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert would return to the political stage by heading up the list of Kadima party candidates campaigning for seats in the Israeli Knesset. However Olmert, who was convicted of breach of trust last July and has several other financial criminal charges pending against him, has decided not to run in the election....

Building In Israel

Controversy continues to swirl around the world over the Israeli governments decision to build hundreds of new apartment units in several existing Jewish communities near Jerusalem. Government officials announced earlier this month they would seek building permits for new dwellings in Jewish communities northeast of the capital city, not far from the biblical Mount of Olives. Palestinian Authority leaders were joined by many countries, including the United States, France and Britain, in...

Israel Blamed For Aids

A top Palestinian health official maintains that Israel is somehow behind an increase in the number of Palestinians suffering from the AIDS virus. Assad Ram-lawi, who serves as the director of Primary Heath Care in the Palestinian Authority government headed by PA President Mahmoud Abbas, leveled the allegation at a ceremony earlier this month in the Palestinian city of Jenin marking the United Nations annual World AIDS Awareness Day. The health official claimed that Palestinian men who go...

Israel Reacts to PA Bid

Exactly 65 years to the day after the United Nations voted to partition the Holy Land into separate Jewish and Arab states, the Palestinian Authority won a crucial UN vote which could finally make that happen. At the time of the original vote at the end of November in 1947, Jewish leaders of pre-state Israel accepted the Partition Plan, which was backed by the United States and 32 other countries, including the Soviet Union. They did so reluctantly, since the Jewish State being proposed...

Lost Jews Come Home

There are a number of Israeli humanitarian groups that labor to locate members of lost Jewish communities residing in various places around the world, especially in Asia, Africa and South America. One of them, called Bnei Maneshe, or "Offspring of Menashe," focuses its work in the South Asian countries of India and Burma. The group was founded by American-Israeli Michael Freund after he became convinced that descendents of the Jewish tribe of Menashe were living in those countries. A series...

The New Pharaoh?

Israeli government officials were pleasantly surprised and relieved when new Egyptian President Muhammad Morsi played a positive role in negotiating an unofficial ceasefire last month, which ended the eight-day conflict between the Palestinian Hamas movement and Israel. They had initially expressed doubt that the Muslim Brotherhood affiliated leader would help them end the heavy Hamas rocket bombardments upon their civilian centers, including Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. This came after Morsi...

Israels Next War

One week after the short but intense conflict ended between Israeli Defense Forces and the militant Hamas movement based in the Gaza Strip, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly thanked his military personnel for their participation in what was dubbed Operation Pillar of Defense. Speaking before a group of active Israeli Air Force pilots and reservists at the Palmahim air force base near the Mediterranean coast south of Tel Aviv, the Israeli leader congratulated them on what he...

Gilad Shalit

The Israeli public was thrilled and relieved when kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Shalit was finally set free by his Palestinian Muslim abductors in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip earlier this year after over five years in captivity. Israeli officials said the kidnapping was carried out by Hamas militants under the direction of Ahmad Jaabari. They charged Jaabari was also responsible for organizing thousands of Hamas rocket attacks upon Israeli civilian areas near the Gaza Strip over the past few...

More Trouble in Jordan

World attention was naturally focused during the second half of this month on the fighting between Israeli forces and the Hamas terrorist organization, which has fired thousands of rockets upon Israeli civilian centers around the Gaza Strip for over ten years. However Israeli leaders were keeping one eye on jarring developments in several neighboring Arab countries, including Syria and Jordan. Israels shared border with the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip is tiny compared to its long international...

Apartments in Gilo 1

The large Jerusalem neighborhood of Gilo is located on a hill that bears the same name. With some 40,000 people residing in it, Gilo lies due south of the heart of Israels contested capital city, not far from the Palestinian town of Bethlehem. During the first and second Palestinian uprisings, Gilo was the recipient of frequent Palestinian shell and rifle fire, mostly attributed to the radical Hamas movement and its Muslim fundamentalist allies. Despite its close proximity to Palestinian...

Fresh Trouble In Bahrain

The small Arab Gulf country of Bahrain plays a very strategic role in helping to insure that the United States continues to play the role of a superpower on the world stage. Situated across the Gulf waterway from one of Americas most strident enemies, Iran, Bahrain serves as the base of the US Fifth Fleet. Therefore whatever happens in the Sunni Muslim-ruled sheikdom always receives extra attention in Washington. Last year, a Shiite Muslim-led uprising was successfully put down by government...

Israel and Obama

Despite their past public differences and reported continuing tensions, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was one of the first world leaders to congratulate President Barrak Obama on his re-election victory earlier this month. Focusing on the positive, he stated the vital strategic relationship between the two allies is, "stronger than ever," adding "I will continue to work with President Obama to ensure the interests that are vital for the security of Israel's citizens." Israeli...

Israel and Iran

Israel nearly launched an armed attack on Irans nuclear sites early this year. This revelation came from Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who was naturally involved in planning the military strike. He told reporters that the Netanyahu government decided to postpone the planned air campaign at virtually the last minute when it became clear that Irans Shiite Muslim leaders were redirecting some of their uranium enrichment centrifuges to produce material for medical and other non-military...

Iranian Drones In Lebanon

Irans Defense Minister, Gen. Ahmad Va-hidi, has confirmed that the Shiite Muslim Iranian government was behind the penetration of Israeli airspace last month by a pilot-less drone surveillance aircraft. He said the unmanned spy plane was launched from a site controlled by Irans surrogate Hizbullah militia force in Lebanon. The Defense Minister also stated that the pilot-less drone, which was shot down by Israeli warplanes near the city of Beersheva, is just one of many similar aircraft in...

Circus in Gaza

Life is difficult for most residents of the Palestinian Gaza Strip, which has one of the highest density populations on earth. Not only are food and electricity supplies thin at times, but entertainment options are extremely limited. This is partially due to the fact that the small coastal zone is governed by the Islamic fundamentalist Hamas movement, which frowns on most forms of modern entertainment such as movies and video games.On top of that, many people simply do not have enough...

Sagging Real Estate Market

The Israeli real estate market has remained fairly strong this year despite the economic slowdown affecting Europe and most of the world. Home and apartment sales in nearby territory controlled by the Palestinian Authority had been fairly robust as well, especially in the city of Ramallah north of Jerusalem, which serves as the unofficial Palestinian capital. However with the overall Palestinian economy now sinking back into recession, the housing market is also suffering. Economic analysts...

IDF Strikes Sudan?

Israeli media outlets have been abuzz with news reports about an apparent bombing in the Muslim country of Sudan, located due south of Egypt. The reason the Israeli press has been so focused on the story is a charge from Sudanese government officials in Khartoum that Israeli Air Force jets dropped bombs on a weapons factory located in a sprawling military complex in the capital city. They said two people were killed in the air strike. Israeli government and military leaders would neither...

Apartments in Gilo

The large Jerusalem neighborhood of Gilo is located on a hill that bears the same name. With some 40,000 people residing in it, Gilo lies due south of the heart of Israels contested capital city, not far from the Palestinian town of Bethlehem. During the first and second Palestinian uprisings, Gilo was the recipient of frequent Palestinian shell and rifle fire, mostly attributed to the radical Hamas movement and its Muslim fundamentalist allies. Despite its close proximity to Palestinian...

Palestinians Vote

While the Israeli public gears up for fresh national parliamentary elections scheduled for next January 22nd, their neighbors, the Palestinians, have not gone to the polls to elect new legislators since 2006. Although such elections are supposed to be held every four years, sharp differences between the PLO-linked Fatah political party and the rival Muslim Hamas movement have blocked voters from going to the polls. However the Fatah dominated Palestinian Authority decided earlier this year...

Early Elections

Israel is a parliamentary democracy that holds national elections every four years. Unlike in America, many political parties make it into the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, and coalition governments are then formed involving at least several of them. Like other parliamentary democracies, snap elections can be held at virtually any time if a majority of the Knesset members vote to hold early elections. Seven years ago, early elections were held after then Prime Minister Ariel Sharon...

Biting Sanctions

One of the main foreign policy issues facing the American presidential candidates is what to do about Irans ongoing nuclear production program. Republican Mitt Romney has indicated that he would slap even tougher sanctions than the Obama administration has on the rogue Shiite clerical regime, which has governed Iran since the late 1970s. Economic analysts say the current level of sanctions is proving to be most effective in the area of ocean commerce. They note that most of Irans vital...

Spying on Israel

Earlier this month, a pilot-less drone surveillance aircraft penetrated Israeli air space and remained over Israeli territory for some three hours before being shot down by IDF air force jets. Several days later, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu disclosed that the spy plane was sent into Israeli airspace by the radical Shiite Lebanese Hizbullah militia, whose leaders have pledged to fight against the Jewish State until it is completely destroyed. He vowed that his government is determined...

Hamas Judges

The Palestinian Muslim Hamas movement has come under sharp criticism from a Western human rights group for supporting a corrupt criminal justice system in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. The Human Rights Watch group, which is often highly critical of Israeli government actions concerning the Palestinians, issued a report earlier this month charging that Hamas has been routinely denying basic civil rights to the Arabs living in the small coastal zone. It said torture was regularly employed...

Israeli Aids Kenyan Forces

According to Israeli media outlets, Israeli forces joined others from the United States and France in recent fighting against Al Qaida terrorists who had taken over a port city in the east African country of Somalia. The reports said the battle, which resulted in the successful recapture of the Somalian Indian Ocean port city of Kismayo, was led by Kenyan military forces. If the unconfirmed media reports prove accurate, it would have been the first time Israeli military and intelligence...

Legislators Attend Feast

The International Christian Embassy headquartered in Jerusalem hosted its thirty second annual Feast of Tabernacles celebration last week in Israels capital city. Embassy media spokesman David Parsons said that this years gathering brought some five thousand Christians to the Holy Land from nearly 100 nations all over the earth. He said twenty five legislators from 17 different countries were among the participants. Among the politicians who traveled to Israel for the festive celebrations...

Hizbullah In Syria

Israeli government and military leaders are continuing to closely monitor the fighting that has been raging in neighboring Syria since March 2011. This comes as several media outlets in the region and around the world are reporting an increasingly active role being played in the internal conflict by the Shiite Lebanese Hizbullah militia, which strongly backs the embattled Assad regime ruling the Arab country. According to a recent report in the Washington Post newspaper, Hizbullah militiamen...

Protest In Gaza

The Palestinian Islamic fundamentalist Hamas movement was founded in the Gaza Strip in 1988. In a major battle with the rival Palestinian PLO Fatah movement, Hamas fighters seized full control of the area five years ago. Hamas leaders rule the small coastal zone with a rod of iron, suppressing freedom of speech, religion and other civil rights. Rarely are public demonstrations against the Iranian-backed Hamas government allowed in the Gaza Strip. However hundreds of people took to the...

Nuclear Free Zone

Led by Egypt, the Arab world and other Muslim nations have been demanding for many years that Israel give up its undeclared nuclear weapons as part of an international treaty organized by the United Nations, which would declare the entire Middle East a nuclear free zone. However during a recent meeting of the UNs Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that his country would not attend any conference on the sensitive topic, which has been...

Red Lines

Israeli government officials say that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was misunderstood by many in Washington when he spoke the second half of October about the need to establish what he called "red lines" with Iran over its threatening nuclear development program. The Israeli leader told American reporters that, "Since the advent of nuclear weapons youve had countries that have had access to nuclear weapons that always made a careful calculation of cost and benefit, but Iran is guided by...

Believers Lose Lawsuit

Four years ago, two British lesbian women were married in a civil ceremony held in London. The Jewish women later moved to Israel, where they rented out a hall at a Messianic community located in the tree-lined Judean hills west of Jerusalem, to hold a wedding reception. When the leaders if the community, called Yad Ha Shmona, learned that it was a lesbian couple who were intending to hold a reception in their public hall, they cancelled the event and told the British women they needed to go...

Iran Helps Assad Turn the Tide

Middle East military analysts say the embattled Assad regime in Syria has been winning most of this months clashes with armed opposition forces comprised mostly of Sunni Muslims. Last month, the rebel Free Syrian Army was winning a majority of the battles, but this has changed in recent weeks. The analysts add that the Assad regime has been able to turn the tide of battle due to intense military aid being given to it by its main regional ally, Iran. The Shiite republic has been rushing...

Chris Stevens

The Americans, Israelis and Palestinians who work at the US embassy in Tel Aviv and theconsulate in Jerusalem have been mourning the murder of American Ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens. The slain diplomat served in Israel before being posted in Libya. Stevens was highly regarded by the men and women he worked with on a regular basis, and by Israeli and Palestinian diplomats. Before widespread anti-American protests broke out in many Arab countries and in Jerusalem on September 11th, a...

Palestinians Joining Arab Revolt

During the past 19 months of anti-government social protests in many parts of the Arab world, the Palestinian street had stayed relatively quiet. This was despite the fact that a former senior economic aid to Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas gave a series of television interviews charging the PA with massive financial corruption and political suppression of its opponents. Now the fiery protest movement that has gripped many Arab countries since the beginning of last year, resulting...

War Expands in Syria

Evidence continues to mount that Syrias so-called civil war is drawing in more and more fighters from other regional countries. The latest indications that the conflict is expanding came from international media reports, which said Iraqi Shiite Muslim warriors have been streaming into neighboring Syria to support the embattled regime headed by Bashar Assad. American diplomats operating in the turbulent region told reporters from the New York Times that Iraqi Shiite militias fear that if the...

Superbugs

In recent years, medical facilities in the United States and around the world have been increasingly battling what are termed "superbugs," which are various forms of bacteria that have developed a resistance to the antibiotic drugs available today. Patients enter a hospital for treatment of various aliments, only to subsequently become infected by such harmful supeprbugs, with many later succumbing to them. It was recently announced in Jerusalem that Nathan Citri, a 91 year old retired...

Not the Time to Negotiate

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told a visiting American senator that peace negotiations with the Palestinians cannot be resumed at present due to the continuing rise of what he termed "militant Islamic movements" in the Middle East and North Africa. This was an apparent reference to the electoral victory this year in Egypt of the Islamic fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood movement, which now controls both the Egyptian parliament and the national government. Muslim...

UN Draws Israeli Ire

The United Nations released a report late last month that focused on the Gaza Strip, home to well over one million Palestinians. Since 2007, the area has been ruled by the Islamic fundamentalist Hamas movement. The report maintained that the small coastal zone could become unlivable by the end of this decade. It predicted that conditions in the Gaza Strip would steadily worsen if Israeli restrictions on imported goods remain in place. Israeli authorities currently limit the import of...

Money Seized In America

US government officials have seized money that was spread out in five American banks. They said the money was used by a Lebanese bank that was laundering it before handing on the funds to the Shiite Lebanese Hizbullah militia. The Iranian-trained and funded militia is listed as a terrorist organization by the US State Department. American officials said a total of 150 million dollars was deposited in the five US banks. A government probe was opened over one year ago, focused on the...

Wobbly Treaty

Israeli government and military leaders continue to worry that the new Egyptian government, controlled by the radical Muslim Brotherhood movement, may abrogate the 1979 Camp David peace treaty with Israel. In a telephone conversation late last month, the new Egyptian Defense Minister told his Israeli counterpart, Ehud Barak, that the government is not planning to end the treaty, which was brokered by former US President Jimmy Carter. However a public call to ditch the accord has been posted...

ISRAELI AID TO AFRICA

In the wake of the fierce Yom Kippur Arab-Israeli war in 1973, Arab oil countries led by Saudi Arabia put tremendous pressure on most black African countries to break all diplomatic ties with Israel. The effort proved overwhelmingly successful, with many countries recalling their ambassadors from the Jewish State. However over the past decade, some of those countries have renewed their diplomatic ties. This was largely due to an orchestrated campaign by the Israeli governments Foreign...

JAPAN OFFERS THANKS

Terrorism is a scourge that has struck the Israeli people every year since the countrys establishment in 1948. It reached its peak in the early years of the 21st century when the Palestinians launched their second uprising, leaving nearly one thousand Israelis dead and tens of thousands wounded. However there is a silver lining to the terrorist scourgeit has left the country as one of the most experienced on earth in dealing with sudden death and disaster on a significant scale. The Israeli...

NEW ISRAELIS

The Israeli media has been full of reports this year about a possibly pending military conflict with several of the countrys sworn enemies like the Lebanese Hizbullah militia and/or Iran. In light of the security threats, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently installed former Israeli Shin Bet internal Security Agency chief Avi Dichter to head up the governments Home Front ministry. As head of the Shin Bet, Dichter spent much of his time preparing the small country for the possibility of...

Muslims Move On Egypt

Many Middle East political analysts have been expressing concerns that the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood movement might emerge as the main anti-Western force in the region. They say the group is committed to establishing a Muslim caliphate that they hope will eventually rule over the entire Middle East before assuming control over the rest of the world. Given these ultimate goals, analysts were not surprised when the new Egyptian President, Muhammad Morsey, fired his defense minister in mid...

Used Hummers

Israeli military leaders have been busy inspecting various American weapon systems and other military equipment that was used by US forces during the war in Iraq. American leaders decided to sell much of the older equipment and weapons rather than paying to ship them all back to the United States. The Israeli army recently announced that it has agreed to purchase two thousand Hummer vehicles from the US. Although the Hummers had seen heavy use in Iraq, Israeli leaders said the purchase price...

Situation In Syria

Israeli government and military leaders continue to keep a wary eye on the internal conflict raging in neighboring Syria. One of the main concerns is that the country may entirely collapse, with armed factions fighting each other for many years to come, as occurred in nearby Lebanon during the 1970s. The head of the Israeli Army Northern Division, Brig. Gen. Tamir Heyman, spoke recently about the dangers that the Syrian civil war poses to Israel. Addressing his troops near the Golan Heights...

Another Blast From Iran

The Israeli government and people have almost gotten used to the frequent bombastic vows issued by the leaders of the Shiite regime in Iran, telling the world that the Jewish state will soon be destroyed. In the latest blast, Irans extremist President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, posted a speech on his website calling for what he termed "the world forces" must come together to annihilate Israel, claiming that the future of the entire human race is somehow threatened by Israels existence. Commenting...

Syrian Conflict

Israeli army forces stationed in northern Israel have been beefed up in recent weeks as the Syrian civil war seems to be nearing a possible climax. Troops patrolling the tense Golan Heights border with Syria recently shot dead a Syrian man who was attempting to cut the metal border fence with Israel. He had earlier ignored several attempts by nearby Israeli soldiers to get him to halt his infiltration action. The man was struck by an army bullet that was deliberately directed at his leg. He...