One of the crazy things about following the Middle East is trying to keep track of all the bad guys. Remember when Iran was the big bad Islamic wolf? Or al-Qaida? Or Hezbollah? Or the Muslim Brotherhood? Or Hamas?
During the war between Israel and Hamas, local Iranian Jews have taken a two-pronged approach to supporting the Jewish state: raising substantial dollars on behalf of humanitarian causes in Israel and speaking out on Farsi-language media outlets based in Southern California.
The push for a Gaza ceasefire risks becoming mired in a regional tussle for influence between conservative Arab states and Islamist-friendly governments, with rival powers competing to take credit for a truce, analysts and some officials say.
An Iron Dome anti-missile defense system was positioned in the Jerusalem area, reportedly for the first time.
The Islamist Hamas movement has sharply criticized the Palestinian Authority for resuming peace talks with Israel, saying that President Mahmoud Abbas is giving in to American pressure. The criticism comes as Hamas moves toward a rapprochement with Iran, despite differences over Syria.
A couple of years ago a private conversation between then French President Nicholas Sarkozy and President Obama was caught on a live mike. Sarkozy said I can\’t bare Netanyahu, he\’s such a liar.\” Obama responded: \”You\’re fed up with him but I have to deal with him more than you do.\”
No one knows for sure why the Gaza hostilities began. We know that there had been weeks of intensifying rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip, rockets fired by various Palestinian groups that were tolerated, even encouraged by the governing Hamas.
A rocket fired from the Gaza Strip landed close to Tel Aviv on Thursday, in the first attack on Israel\’s biggest city in 20 years, raising the stakes in a military showdown between Israel and the Palestinians that is moving towards all-out war.
The U.S. House of Representatives defense appropriations subcommittee is set to approve nearly $1 billion for Israeli and joint Israeli-U.S. missile defense programs.
Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said in Iran that armed resistance is the only way to fight against Israel. The \”gun is our only response to the Zionist regime,\” Haniyeh said Monday in Tehran, according to the semi-official Iranian Fars news agency.
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