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WASHINGTON -- Frustrated over a stall in an arms sale to Saudi Arabia, Obama once questioned the necessity of maintaining Israel's qualitative military edge in the region, former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said on Monday. Panetta was confirming a report from Atlantic writer Jeffrey Goldberg, who attributed the claim to him in an article on Obama's foreign policy doctrine published last March. The former Pentagon chief said the White House, at the time, was deeply concerned that Israel was preparing to unilaterally strike Iran. Simultaneously, the administration was also hoping to complete with Riyadh a significant sale of fighter jets....

MEMRI: Palestinian Historian Dr. Ibrahim Al-Sinwar: Ancient Egyptians Had the Right to Force the Jews to Work Building Pithom and Raamses; Benjamin Franklin Warned against the Jews MEMRI No. 2260| November 16, 2009 Palestinian Historian Dr. Ibrahim Al-Sinwar: Ancient Egyptians Had the Right to Force the Jews to Work Building Pithom and Raamses; Benjamin Franklin Warned against the Jews Following are excerpts from an interview with Dr. Ibrahim Al-Sinwar, a lecturer on Islamic history at the Islamic University of Gaza. The interview aired on Al-Aqsa TV on July 31, 2009. To view this clip, visit http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/2260.htm Dr. Ibrahim Al-Sinwar: The...

BREAKING: Israeli aircraft reportedly hit two Hamas sites in Gaza Strip in response to rocket fire - @i24NEWS_EN— Conflict News (@Conflicts) July 2, 2016 Photo: Reportedly aftermath of Israeli airstrikes in Gaza Strip - https://t.co/XmgnIBbdBZ pic.twitter.com/RCzjT48eqA— Derek Bisaccio CN (@DerekBisaccio) July 2, 2016

Istanbul governor: 28 killed and 60 wounded We have just received an update on the casualties from the attack from Istanbul's governor. At least 28 people have died, with approximately 60 more wounded.

NEW YORK – The liberal, Reform, Conservative and secular parts of the American Jewish community may become more distant from Israel as the country’s demography becomes more Orthodox and nationalistic, according to a report presented to the Cabinet on Sunday. Results from the 12th Annual Assessment of the Situation and Dynamics of the Jewish People, put together by The Jewish People Policy Institute, were offered by JPPI Co-Chairman Ambassador Dennis Ross and President Avinoam Bar-Yosef. Bar-Yosef explained that while there is significant support for Israel in North America, it isn’t compensating for “the young generation of liberal and secular American...

Following are excerpts from an interview with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip ErdoÄŸan, which aired on the Al-Jazeera network on September 11, 2011. Recep Tayyip ErdoÄŸan: The measures we have taken are only the beginning. As you know, we have taken five measures, and we will see the results of these measures in the days, weeks, and perhaps months to come. Israel must realize that it is accountable for its actions, past and present. It will realize this. We have seen that Israel has never observed any of the resolutions issued by the UN General Assembly or Security Council. Israel...

Using funding from Western taxpayers, and Americans in particular, United Nations schools are teaching Arab children to glorify terrorism and wage constant war against their Jewish neighbors, according to a new film. In the explosive documentary released late last month by a pro-Israel watchdog group, schools run by the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) are even exposed offering military-style training to young children. That training, combined with a curriculum that teaches fervent hatred of Jews, is a recipe for disaster, the producer said, citing the recent wave of attacks. But now, U.S. lawmakers are speaking out, with media reports...

The Israeli military has demolished the home of the Palestinian terrorist who fatally stabbed American tourist and former U.S. Army officer Taylor Force in a terror attack back in March. Ten others were also wounded in the attack. The troops entered the West Bank village of Hajjah early on Tuesday to knock down the residence of Bashar Masalha. […] Force was a Vanderbilt University graduate student visiting Israel during a school trip. He previously graduated from West Point and served tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. Masalha was killed by police after the attack. The assault was part of...

MK accuses social media giants of tolerating incitement; former Mossad official: Social media the most important sphere for fighting terror. Former senior Mossad operative Uzi Shaya spoke today (Tuesday) at a conference entitled "Towards A New Law of War", held in Jerusalem by "Shurat Hadin", a human rights organization dedicated to taking legal action against terrorist groups and those who fund them, which is currently representing 20,000 Israelis in a lawsuit against none other than Facebook. "One of the most significant theatres of terrorism today is incitement in social media such as Facebook, Twitter, and others. The biggest problem is...

The Israeli government is considering a proposal to build an artificial island off the Gaza Strip that a top official says would give Palestinians living in the besieged enclave their one and only seaport — and maybe a hotel and an international airport, too. The Israeli minister of intelligence who is promoting the plan, Israel Katz, said the Jewish state is actively seeking financial partners for the $5 billion project. Katz mentioned the Saudis and Chinese as possible builders of the port — or maybe a mysterious Israeli entrepreneur. He declined to name names. ... He said the plan is...

Following the Orlando terror attack, Professor Ahmad Nofal of the University of Jordan said in his weekly program that gunman Omar Mateen was a "sick personality" with "perverse tendencies" and that "[homosexuality] is controlled and imposed upon the world by global Zionism, Allah's number one enemy on Earth." Professor Nofal added that Mateen "evoked the Western model of heroism," represented in the massacre of Native Americans. His address aired on the Jordanian Yarmouk TV channel on June 17. Ahmad Nofal: "(Omar Mateen) is a dramatic character that requires a film - a Hitchcock-style horror movie, like 'Psycho' from over 50...

Opposition leader and Zionist Union chief Isaac Herzog agreed to far reaching concessions on the eve of the 2015 election, a report by Channel 10 on Sunday revealed. Herzog, who prior to the election was seen as a viable candidate for Prime Minister, signed a secret letter of understanding with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, agreeing to a number of long-standing Arab demands. Among the subjects covered in the letter are the division of Jerusalem, the future disposition of Judea and Samaria, and the so-called “right of return” for Arabs who left the country in 1948. According to the agreement,...

Opposition leader and Zionist Union chief Isaac Herzog agreed to far reaching concessions on the eve of the 2015 election, a report by Channel 10 on Sunday revealed. Herzog, who prior to the election was seen as a viable candidate for Prime Minister, signed a secret letter of understanding with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, agreeing to a number of long-standing Arab demands. Among the subjects covered in the letter are the division of Jerusalem, the future disposition of Judea and Samaria, and the so-called “right of return” for Arabs who left the country in 1948. According to the agreement,...

Zionist Union chief Isaac Herzog’s spokesman Ofer Newman stirred up controversy Saturday night with provocative comments posted on Facebook targeting Jews living in Judea and Samaria. The post came after the airing of the TV special “The Settlers”, inspiring Newman to publicly air his feelings on the Jewish communities over the Green Line. Launching into a typed tirade, Newman labelled Jews in Judea and Samaria as “lowly murderers” who “built swimming pools on the blood of murdered children.” The special, said Newman, “is painful and terrifying proof of this simple fact: the people who are destroying our future have won...

TEL AVIV – As the debate over Donald Trump’s proposed wall along the U.S.-Mexico border continues to dominate the presidential race, Israel is reportedly planning to move ahead with a massive above and underground concrete barrier along the entire border with the Gaza Strip. The barrier was revealed on Thursday in a story splashed across the cover of Yedioth Aharonot, Israel’s largest daily newspaper. The story was published with the approval of the country’s defense ministry. Yedioth’s affiliated website, Ynetnews, has the details:

Last fall, amid concerns that the Iran deal would result in a financial windfall for Iran’s proxy terror organization, Hezbollah, Congress passed the Hezbollah International Financing Prevention Act. It mandated new, stringent sanctions against banks and other financial institutions doing business with Hezbollah.The bill passed unanimously in both the Senate and the House, leaving President Obama little choice but to sign it into law on December 18.Though less in the spotlight recently than the Islamic State, Lebanese-based Hezbollah has killed more Americans than any terror organization except al-Qaeda; has a vast global reach encompassing Europe, Africa, and Central and South...

Hamas is rejecting the Arab Peace Initiative and calling on Arab countries to stop promoting it. Mahmoud Al-Zahar, a member of Hamas' political bureau, on Thursday said the initiative is a threat to vital Palestinian interests. In an interview with the Al-Arabi Al Jadid newspaper, Zahar called on Arab countries not to promote the Arab Peace Initiative, explaining that it is merely a mechanism that will eliminate the idea of ​​establishing a Palestinian state, due to the fact that negotiations with Israel have proven to be a failure. The Arab peoples, Zahar continued, should first and foremost be concerned about...

Palestinian human rights activist Bassem Ayyad, a former investigator for the radical leftist NGO B'Tselem, surprised a conference of Judea and Samaria researchers at Ariel University on Thursday when he revealed unofficial Palestinian views. Arutz Sheva got the chance to speak with Ayyad about how Palestinian Arabs view the Palestinian Authority (PA), and learned he thinks most would in fact love to see Israel annex Judea and Samaria. Ayyad explained that "the Palestinians have become frustrated by the attitude and the behavior of the Palestinian Authority." He noted that since the PA was created in the 1994 Oslo Accords, Arabs...

British MPs on Tuesday debated their country's funding of radical anti-Israel NGOs, with several legislators questioning why the government's aid agency is spending so much on extremist organizations which undermine Israeli democracy. The debate on foreign aid at the UK House of Commons was prompted by a petition which garnered nearly a quarter of a million signatures - well over the 150,000 needed to force a nonbinding parliamentary discussion on the issue. That petition calls for the UK government to end its policy of spending a fixed 0.7% of national income on overseas aid, and was launched after an expose...

Tel Aviv’s Sarona Market bills itself as the “heartbeat of Israeli culinary art.” Dozens of small restaurants and shops offer cheese, wine, bread, fish, olives, pasta, burgers – pretty much anything you can imagine and quite a bit that you probably cannot. I had a nice lunch there the other day. Exactly a week later two Palestinian men sat down in a café, ordered dessert, pulled handguns from beneath their dark suit jackets and began firing at everyone in sight. Four civilians were murdered and more than a dozen wounded before the killers were stopped – one shot by a security...