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El-ARISH, Egypt -- Egypt is building a 10-foot-high concrete wall along its border with Gaza to prevent any new breaches after Palestinian militants blasted through the barrier in January to escape a blockade of their territory, an official said. The new wall replaces a mixed barbed-wire, iron and concrete barrier which was breached in several places when militants blew it open with explosives, added the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not allowed to talk to the media. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians flooded across the open border unchecked for 12 days before Egypt managed to...

Egypt walls up Gaza border By ASHRAF SWEILAM ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER RAFAH, Egypt -- Egypt is building a 13-foot high concrete and rock wall interspersed with watch towers along its narrow boundary with the Gaza Strip to prevent Hamas militants from breaching the border, an official said Thursday. The wall, set back nearly 35 feet from an existing metal barrier, has guard towers every 100 yards. With it, Egypt hopes to prevent any future breaches like one in January when Palestinians broke through to escape an Israeli blockade, a security official said on customary condition of anonymity. On Jan. 23,...

Hamas militants have destroyed a section of a concrete barrier erected along the Gaza-Egypt border.Palestinian and Egyptian troops have been trying to shore up the barrier to stop Palestinians crossing into Egypt after the withdrawal of Israeli troops. In chaotic scenes, thousands of Palestinians have streamed over the border in the last few days without undergoing official checks. Despite this, Egypt says that its Gaza border is officially closed. Militants from Hamas cleared an area before setting off explosives that blew away a section of the wall. Palestinian security officers present did nothing to prevent them. A local Hamas commander...

RAFAH, Gaza Strip - Tens of thousands of Palestinians poured from the Gaza Strip into Egypt Wednesday after masked gunmen with explosives destroyed most of the seven-mile wall dividing the border town of Rafah. The Gazans crossed on foot, in cars or riding donkey carts to buy supplies made scarce by an Israeli blockade of their impoverished territory. Police from the militant group Hamas, which controls Gaza, directed the traffic. Egyptian border guards took no action. Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Arye Mekel said Israel has no forces on the Gaza-Egypt border and, "therefore it is the responsibility of Egypt to...

French lawmakers will vote on November 28 on a proposal by the Socialist Party urging the government to recognise Palestine as a state, a parliamentary source said Wednesday. The non-binding but highly symbolic vote would follow a similar vote in the British parliament and after Sweden announced it formally recognised the state of Palestine. A draft of the proposal states that the lower house National Assembly "invites the French government to use the recognition of the state of Palestine as an instrument to gain a definitive resolution of the conflict". France will "obviously at a certain moment recognise the Palestinian...

On Twitter, Ayatollah Khamenei says ‘barbaric, wolflike & infanticidal regime’ must be destroyed, West Bank Palestinians armed Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called for the destruction of Israel over the weekend, stating that the “barbaric” Jewish state “has no cure but to be annihilated.” In a tirade posted on Twitter Saturday night, using the hashtag #handsoffalaqsa, in reference to the recent tensions on the Temple Mount, the Iranian religious leader also reiterated his appeal to arm the Palestinians in the West Bank. “This barbaric, wolflike & infanticidal regime of #Israel which spares no crime has no cure but to...

Is the Middle East becoming less Arab? Hisham Melhem Saturday, 8 November 2014 President Obama’s letter to Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in which he laid out the foundation of a new relationship emanating from a nuclear compromise, and stressed shared U.S.-Iranian interests in combatting the extremist Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), is emblematic of a gradual and subtle shift in Washington’s attitudes towards the region in general and its Arab actors in particular. In this rapidly changing Middle East, the U.S. sees a diminishing Arab influence brought about by the erosion of the state system, lack...

National Security Advisor Susan Rice disputed Republican critiques of President Obama's foreign policy by arguing that "political polarization" accounts for the "one weakness" of American strength in international affairs. "The one weakness that our friends and partners point to and the one thing that undermines our strength around the world is our political polarization," Rice said during an event hosted by the Women's Foreign Policy Group. Rice didn't mention Republicans specifically, but cited policy fights that they have provoked, such as over budget issues. "When countries look at us, they wonder and they worry if we will have our collective...

U.S. National Security Adviser Susan Rice ridiculed Israel’s Ambassador to Washington, Ron Dermer, for spending time with Republican casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, The Washington Free Beacon reported on Monday. According to the report, Rice was asked in a recent meeting with a top American Jewish leader why she had not held meetings with Dermer. She responded, “He never asked to meet me.” “Besides, I understood that he’s too busy traveling to Sheldon Adelson’s events in Las Vegas,” she added, referring to the major Jewish philanthropist who also owns Israeli daily Israel Hayom. Haaretz reported that Rice was referring to Dermer’s...

US Secretary of State John Kerry claimed Wednesday he was “driving toward the finish” to secure what would be a historic deal with Iran over its nuclear program as a November 24 deadline looms. “We are not contemplating an extension,” stressed Kerry, ahead of what are likely to be crunch talks with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and outgoing EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton in Muscat on November 9-10. “We are driving towards the finish with the view we are to trying to get it done,” he said. Kerry dismissed questions about whether the GOP’s command of Congress...

The film is starring Sama al-Masry, an Egyptian belly dancer who has raised eyebrows in the past for controversial statements. Egypt is all abuzz over a controversial movie poster promoting the latest film with a noted belly dancer. According to Al Arabiya, social media users in Egypt are outraged over the poster for “Apple Charcoal,” which shows the panties-covered legs of a woman. In between her legs is a water pipe. The film is starring Sama al-Masry, an Egyptian belly dancer who has raised eyebrows in the past for controversial statements. In one YouTube clip, she denounces President Barack Obama...

The Duke of Wellington said of his close-run victory over Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo that the French "came on in the same old way, and we sent them back in the same old way." Something like that happened to the Democrats in Tuesday's midterm elections, as they lost the Senate, a few more seats in the House and additional governorships. They came on with the same old strategy, but this time they went down with it. Obama and the Democrats chose not to defend the administration's record of the last six years. On foreign policy, no Democratic chorus...

Will the UN Security Council Impose a Palestinian State?Posted By Joseph Puder On November 3, 2014 @ 12:25 am In Daily Mailer,FrontPage | 6 Comments January, 2015 does not bode well for Israel at the United Nations (UN). The UN Security Council (UNSC) will officially induct five newly elected non-permanent member-states replacing outgoing Rwanda, S. Korea, Australia, Argentina and Luxembourg, representing all the global regions. Unfortunately for Israel, the incoming states, particularly Venezuela and Malaysia, are hostile to the Jewish state. The other three, Angola, New Zealand, and Spain are pondering their position on recognizing Palestine as a full member-state...

In a dramatic development, Israeli cabinet members are warning that US President Barack Obama threatened Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the US may opt not to oppose future hostile UN Security Council votes, unless Israel accedes to American policy demands, Israel’s NRG News reported on Sunday. “The prime minister told colleagues in recent days … that his office’s understanding of the issue and the government’s take on it is that the Americans will not cast a veto against a resolution that reaches the Security Council,” Ariel Kahana, diplomatic correspondent for the Makor Rishon and NRG dailies, told The Algemeiner on...

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will convene his senior ministers on Friday to discuss the demands made by US President Barack Obama and his overall trip to Washington – a trip that, because of negative atmospherics and amid a paucity of hard information, has been widely characterized as among the most difficult in recent memory.

Lawyers for the Obama administration compared Israel’s control of Jerusalem to Russian claims over the Ukrainian territory of Crimea during oral arguments this week before the Supreme Court in a case concerning the rights of U.S. citizens to list Jerusalem as part of Israel on their passports. U.S. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli, who is rumored to be in the running to replace outgoing Attorney General Eric Holder, drew the comparison on Monday while he attempted to convince the Supreme Court that Jerusalem is not officially part of Israel. The controversial case hinges around Menachem Zivotofsky, who was born in Jerusalem...

Iran has tentatively agreed to ship much of its huge stockpile of uranium to Russia if it reaches a broader nuclear deal with the West, according to officials and diplomats involved in the negotiations, potentially a major breakthrough in talks that have until now been deadlocked. Under the proposed agreement, the Russians would convert the uranium into specialized fuel rods for the Bushehr nuclear power plant, Iran’s only commercial reactor. Once the uranium is converted into fuel rods, it is extremely difficult to use them to make a nuclear weapon. That could go a long way toward alleviating Western concerns...

Thousands of Iranians chanted “Down with America” at a major anti-U.S. rally on Tuesday marking the anniversary of the 1979 takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, just days ahead of a key meeting between the two nations’ top diplomats over Iran’s controversial nuclear program. The gathering outside the former embassy compound in Tehran, which has become the annual venue for rallies commemorating the embassy attack and other American-bashing protests, was smaller compared to last year’s event, which drew tens of thousands – a sign of improved Iran-U.S. relations since moderate Iranian President Hassan Rouhani took office last year. But...

U.S. officials report that more than 1,000 foreign fighters are streaming into Syria each month as a United Nations report says that the terrorist influx has reached an "unprecedented scale." According to the new U.N. report, a lot more terrorist boots are on the ground these days as an "unbelievably small" — to use Secretary of State John Kerry's phrase — air campaign, which has taken months to do what should have been done in a day, has failed to achieve the administration's proclaimed goal: to "degrade and destroy" the Islamic State. More than 15,000 foreign fighters from as many...

CAIRO (AP) — U.S. Arab allies Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait are discussing the creation of a military pact to take on Islamic militants, with the possibility of a joint force to intervene around the Middle East, The Associated Press has learned. The alliance would also serve as a show of strength to counterbalance their traditional rival, Shiite-dominated, Iran. Two countries are seen as potential theaters for the alliance to act, senior Egyptian military officials said: Libya, where Islamic militants have taken over several cities, and Yemen, where Shiite rebels suspected of links to Iran have...